BlogPost10

I was fortunate enough to get Mr. Velotta as my teacher to observe at Beachwood High School. He and the rest of the social studies department were very inviting when I came to observe. Mr. Velotta had taught for 19 years at Richmond Heights, and has now been teaching at Beachwood for 2 years. He teaches social studies, helps coach cross country, and is the assistant coach for the varsity wrestling team at Beachwood.

Throughout my field experience I realized how much Mr. Velotta’s students loved him. In between classes students would pop in to say hello, in class students would engage in conversation with him outside of history, and there was a sense of comfort in the room. If students had late work or a complication with online homework, Mr. Velotta was very understanding and reasonable (not that he was a pushover).

One of my major concerns from these observations is how I am going to keep my students engaged in the classroom. Mr. Velotta was a great, energetic teacher; however, I still saw students occasionally on their phone or putting their heads down. History can be dry for people who don’t find it interesting. And not only that, but to teach history is a lot of PowerPoint lectures, reading, and memorization (things that don’t appeal to most students). Mr. Velotta would try to break this cycle by occasionally having the student do projects. This definitely helped, but I am unsure how I will avoid the typical, monotonous history classroom in the future. Mr. Velotta’s classroom is certainly a good model to go off of, but it still a worry of mine.