Observation Experience (1)

Yesterday was my first day actually observing in the classroom at Bearden High School. My observation time covers a full-year freshman algebra class, and a geometry class (with 35 students!!). Monday was an experience to say the least.

As my mentor teacher described, the student in the freshmen class are all fantastic as people, BUT having a classroom full of freshmen right after lunch on a Monday is no walk in the park. The teacher told me about how Monday's are always the hardest, but to help keep her class on task and ready to learn each day, she provides routine by always giving opening and closing problems. At the beginning of class she gives them 1-3 problems covering previous lessons, and at the end of class, she assigns 1-3 problems for the class to be working on while she's still with them to observe. The best part about her organization in this area, was that she monitored while the students were working and as it became clear they had finished or understood the concept, she handed out homework assignments. I really liked this idea, because she was able to interact with all of the students and was able to see who was getting in more quickly and who would potentially need more time and explanation the next day.

The geometry class was also slightly challenging. The students were older, so overall they were better behaved and more on task without the teachers prompting. However, there are 35 of them and it is the last block of the day, so attention spans are generally rather short. Yesterday, the class was preparing for a test they would be taking on Tuesday (today). While the teacher was handing out quizzes from the previous class, the students began to get rambunctious. On the fly, the teacher wrote a short problem on the board for the students to work on while she finished handing back papers. This tactic seemed very simple, but really worked great for keeping the students calm and working. The students worked through their review packets individually/quietly and then in groups. While on the outside this may have seemed a little chaotic, this seemed to work really well in her classroom. Students who finished quickly and understood the material really well were paired with others who seemed to be struggling, creating peer tutoring roles. This allowed struggling students the more one-on-one attention they needed while keeping the more advanced students on-task and out of trouble. It was really fantastic to see peer tutoring roles implemented so easily and effectively in the classroom.