School Visit- Big Spring

Today I had the opportunity to visit Big Spring High school, where one of my fellow student teachers (Katie Andrews) is student teaching. Although some people may consider West Perry and Big Spring to be very similar programs, I would definitely disagree.

Although both schools have their similarities, there are some pretty major differences. Big spring is a one-to-one school, with a very high-tech greenhouse/head house and had block scheduling. West Perry on the other hand has chrome books in a cart for the students to use, a greenhouse without a head house, and we have roughly 45 minute periods. Although the differences may seem minor, when you walk into each school they start to seem pretty major.

I would not say one program is better than the other, both have their strong points and their weak points. Big spring heavily uses technology in the classroom, which can be nice at time, but from my experience technology does not always cooperate.

West Perry on the other hand uses a lot less technology in the classroom, but it is there when we need it. Some things are not as accessible to our students also such as apps like Kahoot which works great for review.

This visit has helped me decide what type of classroom and school I want to be at when I graduate and become a teacher. I decided I want to be at a school more like West Perry in terms of technology, I do not like relying on technology as much as other people do. I really have always been like that.

I would rather see students with a piece of paper in front of them supporting the forestry and logging business.

One thing I will say that I loved at Big Spring was the greenhouse and head house. I would love to have a big greenhouse and the ability to get my students in there working every spring. Although West Perry does have one, I have not gotten much experience in there yet (we haven't started planting).

Either way, both schools have the strength and areas of improvement but it works for them. I would like to be able to incorporate all these different ideas into my future program to come up with something that works just as well for me.