During the 2022-23 academic year, each member of the teaching staff was asked to select and shadow one of their students for the duration of a typical school day. We met the selected student as they arrived at school and attended all of their classes with them as well as asked them to share information with us regarding what activities they were planning to participate in after school, and when returning home that evening. The process of student shadowing is aimed at offering us a greater understanding of what our students’ days are like outside of our own classrooms regarding the overall workload they are carrying and what challenges they face as well as where their hobbies and interests lie. I found the process to be not only quite fun, but also a valuable opportunity for gaining some insight into ways in which I may be able to better help my students to succeed, and feel recognized in a holistic manner within the art room through recognition of the other things they have going on in their lives, as well as give me a better idea as to where my own expectations fell in terms of the rigor and demands on my students time that art class takes up in comparison to/in addition to that of my colleagues.
STUDENT SHADOWING
I shadowed my student on a typical Tuesday when they began the day with English class, analyzing Romeo and Juliet alongside their classmates at 7:30 in the morning. I was not only impressed by their ability to work with such a high level text as EFL learners, but also their willingness to take on such challenge right out of the starting gate. Many of our students travel quite far to get to school (the one I chose to shadow being an exception to this as he lives quite nearby the campus) and they wake up earlier than is likely advised for a person of their age group so as to be to school on time.
After what felt like a very short 55 minutes we moved on to period 2, Food Science where students participated in a lab activity and moved around the school swabbing locations they felt could be home to bacteria. It was not only fun to get up and move around the school swabbing locations, but also felt, even this early in the day, as a very needed break from sitting in a typical classroom environment. The student I selected to shadow is high energy by nature, and struggles to focus on a single task for a long duration of time. He seemed to enjoy the invitation to get up and move around and completed the lab activity on time with his classmates. Following period 2 students are given a 25 minute break during which my selected student enjoyed a snack of sushi and some free time to check in with friends who he had not seen in the morning prior to classes beginning.
While the break was needed and well utilized by my student, the freedom to fill that time with an activity of his choosing also led him to being tardy for period 3, Computers class. My student’s classmates were already beginning a quiz when he entered the room, one requirement for which was that each student bring their own scratch paper to be used during the quiz. My student did not have any scratch paper with him and was now not only late but also visibly stressed by the fact that he felt he didn’t have what he needed to be able to participate in the quiz. While all other students in the class had been able to move through the process of going to break, obtaining the materials needed for participating in the next class/task and arriving on time, I did feel some sympathy for my student as his struggles to self-manage and think ahead were clearly stepping in to challenge him in this situation. After completing the quiz the best he could, my student seemed to overcompensate for the stress he had just experienced by tuning out of the lecture that was being provided and studying for his next exam (Biology) that would be coming up at the end of the day.
Following computers class we moved on to my own subject, Art Class, where I was to provide instruction as usual. One change, however, that I did implement immediately was to pause with the students for several minutes after entering the room and finding our seats to ask them how their day was going. There is a lot to cover in all of the subjects that are students are currently studying and while I myself am also guilty of the same, I , when put in the place of a student, definitely noticed that teachers tended to dive into the content they were providing instruction for immediately. It seemed challenging to not only get from one class to another on time but also to switch mindsets, and recall where I had left off in a new subject that was totally different from what I was just doing my best to fully focus on five minutes earlier. I typically tend to ask students how they are feeling / what news may be happening in their lives before diving into class, but I think that I could also make time for this with even more intention. I am guilty of, at times, overlooking student’s birthdays or failing to follow up with them regarding how the previous quiz they had or project they finished turned out, and I could be more deliberate about trying to connect that first five minutes of class to aspects of their life that happen outside of our classroom. Additionally, I can definitely see the benefit of taking 5 minutes to recap where we left off the previous class. While it might seem tedious to review the content, the process of student shadowing leads me to believe that those five minutes are also a valuable time for students to shift gears and reframe their thinking towards the new subject at hand.
After checking in I invited my shadowed student to take on the role of teacher and share some simple instructions with our class that we had discussed prior to the shadowing day. We had a fun time working together to see how a swapping of roles could bring some spontaneity and a sense of camaraderie into the room.
Next up was lunch time, and I invited my student to be free of me for an hour while we each ate lunch separately. We met up again the next period for PE where students were asked to practice passing and catching skills with frisbees. Physical movement was definitely a welcomed activity by my student, as he struggles to sit still for long periods and really enjoys interacting with his classmates in a fun/low stress environment. As hot as it was, I believe that my student, and his classmates, did enjoy the hour and it seemed a welcomed opportunity to release some stress before the upcoming Biology exam during the last period of the day. Many students discussed the upcoming exam as we were playing, helping one another to review vocabulary terms and (after learning that I would also be taking the exam) trying to give me a few pointers to help me make it through.
Students rushed to make it to Biology class on time and none had trouble doing so. When the bell rang all students, including my shadowed student, were present and seated, prepared and ready to begin the exam that they had been chatting about all day. Students worked diligently for the majority of the hour to take the exam, resting quietly in their desks after finishing. While their discussions about the content throughout the day had indicated that they were quite worried about doing well, the confidence I could sense in the room seemed to convey that they were well prepared and feeling good about their ability to succeed. As I am also an instructor of this section of students, I do know that they are a very hard working group and that Biology is one of their top priorities when it comes to their studies at MUIDS. They were engaged by what was being asked of them on the exam and, from what I could tell, satisfied by what they were able to achieve.
Overall, I feel that I can confidently say that studying at MUIDS as a grade 10 student is challenging but also fun; I believe all students, including my shadowee, were provided chances to challenge themselves and also to succeed within those challenges. My greatest takeaway for my own practice going forward is to try to be more intentional about bringing aspects of their lives that happen outside of school into the classroom as I can sense that the value of doing so is great in terms of the student’s ability to feel a greater sense of recognition as a whole person rather than simply another G10 student at MUIDS. Our students have many diverse talents and interests and it would be great if I could find ways to recognize those aspects of their identity alongside their academic achievements, not outside of but within a typical school day.
