Teacher Observations
During my time at Hickman Elementary, I had the wonderful opportunity to observe different styles of teaching and various grade levels. I was always very rewarded by what I witnessed. Whether it was something I wanted to incorporate into my style of teaching or something I wanted to stay clear from, I felt greatly benefited by this chance to view these various teachers at work.
The first teacher that I observed was a kindergarten teacher. I had such great respect for style of teaching and was in awe of her performance. I found myself wanting to be a student in her classroom. When she said “Good morning, boys and girls,” they in return would say, “Good morning, Ms _____.” She had the student’s total attention the whole time. If they seem that they are going off track, she has the ability to gain their focus back instantly. She did this while always maintaining a loving and nurturing environment.
During carpet time, they sat in front of her to review the date, cite words, and many other daily routines. I notice that she had slightly tailored behavior control of one student. She gave an extra warning when he would lose his focus on the lesson. He was fidgety and he seemed to have difficulty paying attention. When he failed to adhere to the second warning, she asked him to stand rather making him pull a card. She then, without missing a beat when right back to teaching. This all took place in a matter of seconds. Three minutes later, she gave him permission to sit with a statement, “Try again.”
Later that day, I asked her about the incident. I wondered why she gave him more warnings and chose to have him stand rather than go to the next step of her discipline plan. Her response was thought provoking. She stated that this child in particular had more difficulty focusing than the other students. He needs more guidance and should not be punished after every warning, or she would spend most of her time correcting him rather than teaching. He could not help his lack of focus for the most part due to a condition unknown to me and needed to stand to help him with become focus. Her procedure seemed to work. He did not have any trouble after that moment during the time I was there. I loved the fact that she does not have a “one size fits all” mentality in handling behavior challenges.
The second teacher that I visited was a second grade teacher. I really loved her lesson and the way she presented it. It was a classic style of lesson right from Dr. Harry Wong, author of The First Days of School. She had an attention grabber in the beginning that was impressive. Her science lesson was on vibration. Before she mentioned what they would be learning, she laid out six film canisters in front of the class. She took one by one, shaking them and asking the class what they heard. Students gave many hypotheses to what they thought the canisters contained. After recording the statements on the board, she instructed the class to open their textbook and they read as a class what made those noise.
The whole time she was teaching, it was obvious to me and not the students that she was always setting up for the next step in the lesson. This created amazing flow to the lesson. No time was wasted.
The only aspect that I had trouble incorporating to my style of teaching is her interaction with the students. She tended to be sarcastic and spoke down to her students which created an atmosphere where certain students would no longer stay focused on the lesson and retreat within. I noticed that the students tended to be sarcastic with one another and even from time to time with her as well. I feel she would keep the entire class’s attention and command respect with such ease if she did not use sarcasm and use more praise. I felt she was unaware of her sarcasm and that it was obvious that she loved teaching and her students. While I was memorized by her remarkable lesson, and was flawed by her classroom management.
Last, I observed a third grade teacher where I left with great excitement of what was occurring in her classroom. She always gave clear instructions of what was expected academically and behavior wise. Most incredibly, was what she did not say. It was quite obvious she had instilled in her students from day one what was expected from on every aspect of her classroom. I witnessed an entire lesson with not behavior problems, full of excitement and the student encouraging each other in learning.
She started a lesson called around the world. This was used as a multiplication review. The class of 23 students quickly sat in a circle. The teacher started the game off by asking a multiplication problem. The student instantly answered. That student stood behind the next student beside him. Student after student kept getting the answer right. The class was cheering him on while encouraging the student who failed to give the answer before him. After ten students, the successful student was beat out by a fellow student. Rather than be a sore loser, which is what I expect to happen. He shook his opponent’s hand and said good job. I felt that he genuinely meant it. The whole class was this way. The student, who was successful and just lost, got up and took the teacher’s position of giving multiplication problems. She set back and observed the process. I though this was a great way of cooperative learning.
When I remarked to her how I was impressed on how the students were so encouraging to one another, she modestly stated that she was lucky to get such a good group this year. I felt that it was not luck. No one could be this lucky to have a class of student to automatically get along at the level they did and achieve this level of learning.
So, I investigated more into this matter. I asked my supervising librarian teacher how this teacher had such a great class. She said that she was that great of a teacher. She established her expectations early on and she herself was very encouraging. The students were modeling her behavior. This made total since to me. All the classes that I observed seem to model their teachers’ behavior. Teachers set the tone of their classroom environment by their own actions. I felt this was a valuable lesson and it is going to make me a more effective teacher.
