My original expectations for entering a secondary school were based upon words from family members and friends who are educators. Each person would tell me that I DO NOT want to be at middle school. I expected the learners to be a little rowdy, immature, and that they would need constant pushing to stay on task and focused. I expected the teacher to be stern and serious with more focus on preparing learners for the SOLs than on inquiry and exploring activities. My cooperating teacher used the 5E model along with interactive notebooks to teach the content. Each day began with a bell-work assignment that was typically a reflection of the previous days content followed by some type of engagement. The engagement was usually a video or a quick discussion of the topic. The explore had the learners either go to the lab or complete an online simulation of a lab like the Phet activities. For explain, the learners completed notes in their interactive notebooks or discussed their findings from the lab as a class. The elaboration activity was often learners designing their own lab, completing different problems related to the lesson, or presenting how they would change the lab if they could. For summative assessments she often used quizzes, worksheets, and sometimes “Kahoot!” For formative assessments she often used the interactive notebooks activities or the bell-work. In the classroom all the desks are in rows facing the board. In the lab, the desks were in groups of four facing the center of each group. The way the lessons were taught was sometimes learner centered and sometimes teacher centered. If I had to decide on a percentage I would say most days were probably 75 percent learner centered with 25 percent being the teacher giving the learners notes to put in their notebook. In the classroom, the set up was better for individual work with the lab being more for collaborative work. The school curriculum seemed to focus primarily on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs), but it was not a direct focus. By that, I mean the teachers did not “teach the test.” The teachers covered the SOLs and the pace was about the same for each teacher, but it was not the sort of focus where you hear about teachers posting the SOL on the board and going through the notes with the learners. The science teachers seemed to collaborate often, but I did not see much collaboration with other subjects. The science teachers had the same planning period and ate lunch together each day. During planning they often went to each other’s classrooms to discuss some of the labs and ask for materials and during lunch discussed curriculum, board requirements, and other topics. For Halloween, the science teachers combined their classes into one, so all the learners could see the science demonstrations they had planned. My observations did not match by expectations at all. The learners were much more mature and self-driven than I expected. The teacher often had moments where she needed to get the learners to focus or quiet down, but classroom management was not as much of a problem as I expected. My cooperating teacher was stern when she needed to be, but for the most part had a good rapport with the learners. The learners seemed to enjoy coming to her classroom and participating in the activities she had planned.