Morning: Well today is our first day back to school in 5 days. We had an in-service day last Friday, then, Monday was MLK day, and yesterday was a snow day! Lots of kids were out sick last week, so they are returning to school for the first time in a while! I was sick last week too. I’m still feeling it, but I’m really glad to have my voice back.
Today is my first observation. My University Supervisor will arrive at 12:30 today to observe a math lesson. We usually don’t start math until 1:30, so we had to change our schedule around a bit to accommodate his schedule, so I’m hoping that won’t mess the kids up at all. It’s been so long since they’ve been here that I’m hoping it won’t matter. I am teaching a math lesson on adding doubles. I plan to do a share in our class’s morning meeting to tell them that we will have a visitor after lunch and let them know why he will be here. I hope that will help them to be more well-behaved when I am teaching.
This morning, I worked with students who were absent last week to make up tests that they missed. I felt really comfortable giving the tests and they all did very well. It was 2 spelling tests and a mad minute math quiz. I also got to watch my Cooperating Teacher do a DRA with one student, to test his reading level. It was interesting to see it in action. She asked about the pictures, then did a running record for accuracy and then asked them to retell for comprehension. I had heard about these techniques but hadn’t gotten to see them in action yet. The attention getting techniques my cooperating teacher uses are really useful for when the class is too chatty or not on task. A simple phrase or ring of the bell will make them pay attention and then she can give instructions.
I took over to have the class do their jobs and go out to recess. I was confused about which jobs needed to be done, so they kids started getting loud trying to explain to me. The cooperating teacher stepped in to quiet them down, so that was helpful. It shows the importance of knowing what needs to be done next to maintain control of the classroom.
Afternoon/First Observation:
My first observation went well and I was really impressed with how well behaved my class was. They are a really great class and my lesson went smoothly despite one small error in a matching game. I used the website superteachertools.com to generate random pairs. My teacher has done this is the past so our class list was already saved to the website. It is a great way to generate groups of 2, 3, or 4. There are no hurt feelings or arguments about the pairs. I also used a Smartboard game where students were given the opportunity to be “teacher” and sit in the teacher’s chair and call friends to the board to select the answers to problems. It ran very well – they were quiet and on task. They had done similar activities before so they knew what was expected of them.
I found a mistake in the matching game we did in pairs. The picture of eggs was supposed to have a dozen eggs, but it only had 8 in the picture. I told them in groups to pretend that it was a real carton of eggs with 8 eggs on each side. When I brought the class back together, I asked who noticed what the mistake was in the game. I think bring the mistake out in the open rather than trying to hide it or pretend it wasn’t there was helpful.
My supervisor really liked the pacing of my lesson and that there was never a time when the kids were idle or wondering what to do and that the class knew and followed their rules and instructions so well. There were always activities for when the kids finished one thing, and no one was ever wandering around or off task.
Reflection on First Observed Lesson:
I am really relieved to have my first observation under my belt and over with. I was more nervous than I thought I’d be last night, though today I was pretty calm, and I felt ready. My supervisor did notice that I seemed a little tense at first, but he understood that, especially for a first observation.
Overall, I feel the lesson worked really well. Every student got all of the problems correct on both the worksheet and in the matching game. The class was well-behaved and I also felt that the pace of the lesson felt good. We weren’t rushing, but we got everything in and kept it moving so that nothing became stale or boring and the kids didn’t start getting antsy. I am looking forward to doing more in front of the class and getting more comfortable with it. The most difficult thing for me is starting and ending a lesson. I haven’t been sure about what comes next when I finish my part, so my transitions are not the best. I think I will improve on that as I teach more, and especially as I teach more than one lesson at a time, because I will then have a plan for the next part and can go right into it rather than make sure that my cooperating teacher is ready to continue. I only teach one lesson tomorrow but them it will go up from there.
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