Cara Conwell shadowed 6th grade teacher Maureen Shmidt at Sandy Run Middle School for a day. She observed Maureen teach math and social studies classes. Cara saw that teaching from the teacher's perspective is different than the student perspective. One challenge Maureen discussed is funding cuts impacting school programs and materials. Cara found she enjoyed helping and working with children during the shadow experience. She is considering teaching as a potential career path.

1. Cara Conwell
Maureen Shmidtt, Teacher, Sandy Run Middle School
Job Shadow Evaluation
Hours: 7:40am – 3:00 pm, May 2, 2012
1. Today I shadowed Maureen Shmidt at Sandy Run Middle School in Upper Dublin
School District. Maureen is a 6th grade teacher who teaches math and social
studies. She has prep first period, so during that time I was in the library with
another teacher as her class did research for a project on their personal
background. After that I went to Mrs. Shmidt’s classroom and sat in on two math
classes and a social studies class. Today was also Spring Picture day, so during
the social studies class Mrs. Shmidt stayed in the room as I took the kids to get
their pictures taken and then brought them back.
2. I would say that this has been a positive experience for me because sitting in a
classroom from a teacher’s point of view is completely different than seeing it
from a student’s point of view.
3. One current issue in teaching is definitely job opportunities and funding from the
government. Because of the way the economy is right now, the government has
significantly cut school district funding. Because of this, schools have been forced
to cut classes out of their curriculums and can no longer spend money on new
books or repairing their facilities. Since the best solution to this is to make the
government stop their budget cuts- and since that is almost unrealistic- the only
thing we can do is wait for the recession to be over and for the economy to pick
back up.
4. I think that teaching is definitely a profession that interests me. I enjoy helping
and working with other people and already have some prior experience in
working with children. Since teaching entails both of those, I definitely think that
it could be a good option for me.
5. I networked to get this shadow through my step mother who is also a teacher at
Sandy Run. I always wanted to be a teacher for a day so as soon as I heard we had
to do a job shadow I immediately knew I wanted to shadow a teacher. Maureen is
one of my step mother’s best friends who I know very well so knew I wanted to
spend the day with her. Throughout the day I met a lot of other teachers here and
spent some time with the other teachers on Maureen’s 6th grade “team” (they
break the grade up into four different teams). If I keep in contact with these
people and decide that I do in fact want to be a teacher, they may be able to help
me out with job opportunities, advice, or recommendations.
6. The way Mrs. Shmidt got interested in teaching is because she took an intro to
education class in her first year in college with a great professor. She has received

2. Cara Conwell
Maureen Shmidtt, Teacher, Sandy Run Middle School
Job Shadow Evaluation
Hours: 7:40am – 3:00 pm, May 2, 2012
bachelors in science in elementary education, and masters in science and school
counseling, plus the other extra credits that are required.
7. The two most important characteristics that I chose that Maureen displayed were
that she was energetic and was a strong communicator. Being energetic as a
teacher- especially a 6th grade teacher- is very vital. Most of the kids get distracted
very easily and it is important to be able to keep their attention to keep them on
task and focused. Being a good communicator is just as, if not more important.
Dealing with such large classes filled with children that all learn in such different
ways, it is primitive that you can communicate and connect with each child so
that they understand the material.
8. From what I observed, the coolest aspect of this job is the environment. As we
would walk in the halls, Maureen had kids running up to her and hugging her and
calling her name out from the other end of the hallway just to say hey. I think it’s
cool how she has so many personal relationships with her students and they are
not just bodies in her classroom. She is also very close with the other teachers on
her team that it kind of reminded me of one big happy family.
9. The least appealing aspect of the job would have to be the repetitiveness. I’m not
sure how I would handle having to teach the same lesson three times a day, and
having to answer the same question about 100!
10. I am very patient when it comes to most things, but some I am terrible. This day
has taught me ways to be more patient with people, especially when explaining
things. I now see how people all learn at such different paces and you need to find
a way to go that everyone is okay with.