This week we went into High School classrooms for observations. The classroom I was in was excellent! Nothing I would ever want to do but this teacher had done excellent job of running her classroom and made even me want to be there! I could easily spot what we had been talking about with NCTCS in her teaching.
Standard one Leadership... She was a very petite younger teacher which can sometimes lead to students not giving her respect but ALL of her students respected her. You could tell from day one she had established her ground rules and stuck with them. She gave her students respect and in return she was given theirs as the leader of the classroom.
Standard three, Content... The love for her content area was obvious. She did not read from a textbook what her students needed to know but rather she knew it so well she could translate it to a way that was easily understandable to her students. She related things to the real world by talking about political cartoons or the manufacturing of Jordans to make her content important to her students.
Standard five, Reflection... During our observation the teacher made time to come and talk to us by why she did some of things she did in her classroom. For example, she gives her students printed notes that match her presentation but have blanks for them to fill in. She explained to us that she did this because this was a lower level class and they would focus too much on copying notes than actually listening to what she said. She said her method gave her students time to be engaged in what she says but the blanks also keep the students paying attention. She had tried both ways and this had been most effective for her students.
High School is definitely not for me, however, I learned a lot about excellent teaching specific to your students during this visit.
It sounds like you did get to observe a great teacher! I think it is awesome that the teacher explained to y'all about why she does the notes she does. It is good to see that she recognizes and realizes what method works best for that specific group of students. I agree that high school is definitely not for me, but we can learn a lesson of either what to do or what not to do by observing many different teachers.
ReplyDeleteColleen,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you remained optimistic during the high school visit. Even though you know you are not on the "high school" track, I am glad to see that you learned from the visit. I think you are almost ready to quote all the standards from memory...
I completely agree with what you said, personally it was my favorite of the three we visited. What did you think of her choice of music during the in class group project? I’ve heard that listening to classical music helps with thinking but I thought the dubstep was a bit distracting.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to make that decision based upon what your students like. For me, I found that a bit distracting but she said the majority of her students listened to rap music and playing that music had given her positive results in an increase of work ethic.
DeleteShe sounds like a wonderful teacher! I love how well you connected each thing she did with the NCTCS. You observed she knew her content so well she could translate it for her students to better understand. It's great you got to see in action why this works so well! Students are more likely to listen to someone who isn't just reading from a textbook. I'd love to know how she established her rules! Being small teacher kids that are taller than you can be so intimidating! You did very well observing.
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