Teacher Observations
Please note that names have been changed in each of the teacher observations listed below to protect the anonymity of the teachers who were so gracious to allow me to observe their classrooms. Attached below is a chart of the classroom observation that I completed.
Teacher Observation 1
With these facts in mind, I began discussing these reasons for teacher observation with several teaching peers. I had two peers that were open to the idea of these observations. The first teacher, Angela Jackson, is a first grade teacher. This year was her first full year of teaching first grade and teaching in our school. She has only been teaching for a couple of years. Her classroom is buzzing with the sounds of learning and her class wrote a class book that was one of only five from across the country that was recognized by the publishing company for national accolades. I see the promise of being open to creating success for her students. I chose to observe her because of her willingness to learn from this process and the fact that she was in the first three years of teaching. As I sat down with Angela, I found that we discussed things that were going well in her teaching experiences at our school. This meeting took place during our post planning days at school because our students were release May 18th for summer vacation. All of the elementary grade classes had special learning days during the last week of school so I decided that summer school would be a good opportunity to see how Angela faced adversity. In order to determine what Angela felt her strengths and weaknesses were, I asked Miss Jackson to tell me what she felt was her strengths and weaknesses were in her teaching practices. She stated that her CRCT test scores were back and that her students had done well. I questioned why she thought that things went well with the group of students she had taught. She stated that she had assessed continually throughout the year and that she knew ahead of time what her students could and could not do. As I listened closely to her, I wanted to know what her teaching assignment for summer school would be. I discussed several of the observations models with Miss Jackson and after some deliberation, we decided that I would use the Global Scan technique for teacher observations. Because the summer school students were there because they had not passed the CRCT, I felt that this type of observation would be best to help her focus on what instructional strategies she might need to try next in order to build for success for the students.
The morning of the observation, the students were in their desks and working. Upon investigation, I noted that the students were working on practice CRCT tests. Also, there was a variety of age groups represented from third, fifth, and eighth grades in the group that Miss Jackson was working with. As I monitored, most students were engaged in the work at hand. If they were unsure or did not know how to work a particular problem, they would come and conference with Miss Jackson. Rather than giving them an answer, she would respond with a thought provoking question for them. Based on my observation, I felt that she was questioning them in such a way that she was leading them toward the answer by encouraging them to think. One third grade student asked about a measurement question. Miss Jackson questioned her and probed for the student’s understanding about quantity of a particular measurement and used the child’s understanding about how much five inches, five feet, and five yards was, after which the child was encouraged to “estimate the height of a car.” This same type of lesson activity went on for the entire time that I was observing her. The activities were very student oriented, although not necessarily engaging, with teacher intervention being used only when necessary. Some of the fifth and eighth grade students in her group seemed to lose interest in working on their practice tests and often found other things to do. While they stayed quiet, I found the student realized that I was taking notes on their behaviors.
As suggested in chapter 6 of School as Professional Learning Communities by Roberts and Pruitt (2003), during the feedback conference, I worked diligently to create a supportive environment and to give this relatively new teacher feedback that would be useful to her professionally. From the beginning, I expressed the fact that Miss Jackson should give her input in order to make the observation as useful as possible. Next, I gave a photocopy of my notes to Miss Jackson so that she and I both could go over what the “big picture” had shown from the use of the Global Scan technique. I praised Miss Jackson for her use of not just giving the answer to the student, but working to help the student reason this process out in her mind. Also, I discussed that I felt that her demeanor with the student was appropriate and that the students were well behaved. Roberts and Pruitt (2003) stated that we should encourage the teacher to explore the implications of the data to promote reflection and learning. Therefore, I asked Miss Jackson to share with me what she thought went well in the lesson and what she felt needed to be improved. Miss Jackson stated that she did not like the way that she had to work with the students in the summer school program. She stated that she felt that there was a better way to instruct students and help them meet the standard on the CRCT, but she was having difficulty finding the way because she was given the worksheets and the students and felt that this was the way she needed to do it with such a variety of age groups and varying ability levels. I asked her if she had the results with areas of strengths and weaknesses of the students so that she could have focused on these skills to create mini-lessons for students to be more engaged and to take more responsibility for their own work. She said that she had not been given this. She was only told if they failed math or reading. I suggested looking at their strengths and weaknesses and grouping them using a “centers” approach. I stated that I felt that while this may not be an option this summer school because of the time frame of the seven day program, it might be something to think about for the future. I could feel her frustration with the way the summer school system was set up. Miss Jackson also quickly stated that this was not the way her own classroom ran and encouraged me to come back in the fall to see her work with her first graders. I would like to visit her classroom in the style of the walk through teams, as described by Roberts and Pruitt. This same type strategy was utilized at a school that I previously worked. We called it a “Focus Walk” and I strongly believe that it provides for a strong professional dialogue and learning experience for all involved. I plan on trying to encourage this practice during the next school year as I have already discussed it with Miss Jackson and one of her 1st grade co-workers.
The second teacher I chose to observe is Violet Usher, a second grade teacher at our school. She was chosen because she was the Teacher of the Year at our school last year and has several
years of teaching experience. She is often looked at as a teacher leader within the school. Her classroom is very organized and she is very routine oriented. She also was a volunteer for this
observation.
Mrs. Usher met with me one day after her summer school routine. She stated that she was willing for me to come in the next day and observe her with the students. She stated that the students would be in a variety of age groups and would be students needing to retake the CRCT in order to pass their grade level. The students would be from third, fifth, and eighth grades. I would be viewing the third day of seven during this summer school process. We agreed that the Global Scan technique would be the best for this observation because of the wide range of ages that she would be working with.
Upon entering the class, the students were seated and working on what appeared to be a variety of different worksheets. The class was very organized. Students stayed in their seats unless they were going to ask a question. Several of the students appeared to be daydreaming and not interested in the work. Mrs. Usher reminded the entire group to focus on their work. Students came up and asked questions as needed on problems they could not answer on their own. For reading questions, Mrs. Usher would remind the student to use context clues or to reread the reading passage to help them. If a student was having a great deal of difficulty, she would read the question with them and ask, “What do you think the question is asking you to do?” The student would respond what their view of the question. Mrs. Usher used this as a way to assess the student’s understanding. From this point, she focused on having the student to think about where he/she could find the answer from the reading passage. This same process of the students working individually and coming to her for help continued until the session ended. At their 10:30 break. When the students had finished all of their worksheets, Mrs. Usher had more waiting for them to pull from. They were organized by grade level and subject matter.
During the post conference which occurred during the student’s break, Mrs. Usher said that many of the students were great at finding direct information from the passages but were having trouble inferring less direct information. She felt that she might focus a learning experience the next day when the students arrived. She stated that she was limited in what she could do with them because of the great range of student ages and subject matter that some students were working on. Some of the students were retaking math, some reading, and some both. It was at this time that I commended her for her patience and diligence with helping students that were having difficulty with the CRCT. I expressed that the students were well behaved and were on task most of the time. She stated that several of the students receive special education services through the year and that it was difficult for them to be in a group of approximately 17 students with limited individualized help. She and I both agreed that the focus of the way that summer school was done might need to be looked at in order to provide optimum learning experiences to ensure success on the CRCT. I suggested that we look at strengths and weaknesses, as well as grade levels and look at the way we are grouping them. Group them so that the focus of instruction is pertinent to those receiving the instruction. She concurred that this might be a better way to do this in the future. Normally at this time, a follow up session would be scheduled. However, because of the nature of summer school, this was not done because of time constraints.
Teacher Observation 3
The third teacher I chose to observe is a first grade teacher who has more than ten years of teaching experience. She was my child's teacher last year and I was always impressed with her integration of the arts into the classroom. This is an area of weakness for our small school, as we only offer Physical Education and Spanish for the children outside of their regular academics. Mrs. Tammy Anderson is an organized teacher, as well. Mrs. Anderson and I reviewed the different types of observation and felt that the global scan method was the best to use in this interest. She had me come in during her language arts centers time.
As I entered the room, all students were engaged in learning activities. There were three different activities going on. There was a group that was in a listening center with headphones on and books that they were reading on tape. Another group was working on an art activity that corresponded to their weekly reading story. The 1st grade paraprofessional was monitoring these students.
Mrs. Anderson was working in a phonics group with that was using letter cards at their seat to manipulate the initial consonant or blend in each word. After about 20 minutes the groups rotated to the next "center". The students were prepared for the change and knew exactly what to do and where to go. The teacher called on volunteer and non-volunteer to ensure all in her group were engaged in the activity. Students in her group were able to express in words what they were trying to demonstrate. They were able to respond to questions in a fairly accurate manner. I asked a couple of students in the art group, "How do you know if your work is good enough?" One student responded, "When it shows what was going on in the story." Another student said, "My work is good enough if it matches what I am writing about. I am telling what happened in the story."
Mrs. Anderson was continually scanned the room and knew what her students were doing at a given time. At one point one of the students in the listening area was tapping with a pencil. She caught the eye of the paraprofessional and the child was redirected without making a big deal about it.
During the post-conference, the teacher expressed the stresses of being a first grade teacher. She stated that many of the student need a great deal of reinforcement in various ways. She stated that she does a great deal of individualized instruction with her first graders based on their needs. She stated that in first grade, they are continually assessing student progress with things such as DIBLES, Fox in a Box, STEEP, DRA, and many others. She then groups the students based on her knowledge of them, along with the assessments they take. She stated that when she does whole group instruction, she wants to make learning come to life through music and activities such as plays. I commented on her displays of standards and that upon asking students what they were working on, they were able to express what they were to know or be able to do. I was quite impressed!
Teacher Observation 4
For my fourth teacher observation, I observed a Pre-K teacher that I have worked with in the past at a previous school. I was aware at the previous school that her main challenges as a teacher were classroom management and focusing on the standards she was teaching. I went into this observation with an open mind and discussed with her what she felt the challenges of teaching were in her mind. She stated that she wanted learning to be fun for the students since she taught Pre-K. She also indicated that she used a great deal of music and artistic movement in her classroom.
When I entered her classroom, students were working in centers and she was on one of the school telephones talking to a parent. She walked in and was on the phone while monitoring her students'. When she realized that I was there to do the observation, she called the students over to the carpet area where the calendar was. This was slightly chaotic because the students did not seem to understand how to come to the carpet. They were loud and disruptive; several of the students were pushing and shoving. At the calendar, the focus of learning was on patterning and counting in relationship to the carpet. Questions were asked such as, "If there is a heart here and a diamond here then what comes next?" Several of the students did not understanding the pattern. I felt as though if the pattern were modeled for them differently, then the students might have understood the concept better. Following the counting and patterning, she read a book to the students about "Mrs. Wishy-Washy." The students were ecstatic over this. Many of the students were up and acting out the story. It appeared that this was a story they had previously heard. The commotion that erupted with this story made me worry that one of the students would get harmed by the rowdy behavior.
As I met with her and discussed what I witnessed and the fears that I had, this teacher seemed unaware that the lessons seemed to lack focus and structure. We discussed several methods for her to try to improve. One method was to use a chant or song for the students to come to the carpet and to discuss appropriate behavior which would still tie in some of the song component she desired in a way that would demonstrate structure for her students. I also advised her to have an “out of the group” activity that the paraprofessional could be responsible for. In this “out of the group” activity, students that misbehave in the group would be held accountable for rowdy behavior. I also suggested she try some questioning techniques to build for higher levels of thinking to challenge some of her learners that may be more advanced in their thinking than some of their classmates. I advised her that I was not there to evaluate her, but rather to provide support and help to her an any capacity that I could.
To view Mrs. Dudley's thoughts on the process of classroom observation, please click the link Reflective Essay on Classroom Observations.
Leadership Practicum
CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS RECORD LOG
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Date
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Time of
Observation
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School
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Teacher
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Grade Subject
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June 6, 2007
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9:00-10:00
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G.C. Main Campus
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A.J.
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3rd, 5th, and 8th Summer School
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June 7, 2007
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9:00-10:00
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G.C. Main Campus
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V.U.
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3th, 5th, and 8th
Summer School
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January 28, 2008
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1:00-2:00
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G.C. Main Campus
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T.A.
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1st Grade
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February 28, 2008
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9:45-10:45
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C.C. Pre-K
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C.C.
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Pre-School
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