Observation #1

My first official day was spent observing other math teachers throughout the school. It was a fascinating experience, being exposed to great teachers and people I can’t bring myself to call teachers. Seven teachers with seven different styles of both teaching and classroom management ranged from order to chaos to ordered chaos. I observed many things; Things that they do well and things that if I do I would hope someone punches me in the kidney. I am not sure if I learned anything new but I definitely witnessed styles that are widely discussed in educational literature.

Observation #1
This was an Algebra I class with a first year teacher. I was surprised to learn that she had not student taught but that this was an internship that was necessary for certification. She is a young woman, with no experience, teaching freshman at an inner city Philadelphia high school. Given this, she really didn’t do that bad. She was definitely struggling but no more than I would be. Here is some of what I observed:

8:42 - Bell Rings

At the bell there were 9 people.

The students were told to continue working on whatever they were previously working on.

After one minute no specific task had yet been given. We learn that at the beginning of every class, students must be given specific directives. The quicker they get on task the easier it will be to introduce new material.

After 3 minutes only 2 people were doing anything on paper.

Shortly after I counted 16 people.

At 6 minutes, the warm-up material was being done by most of the students. This is when the warm-up should be completed.

The topic (from what I can infer) is Algebraic operations on inequalities.

When explaining the concepts she uses a lot of ambiguous language like “this” and “that.” “You are trying to figure out how to get rid of this.”

8:58 – One student is using and electronic device. Two students are talking loudly about basketball. The warm-up is still occurring.

A staff member (security?) enters the room and asks a student for an ID number and then told another student to take his hat off. This happens in the middle of a lesson.

9:13 – I am not sure what is supposed to be happening.

I noticed that she says the word "right" after just about every sentence. It is really bothering me.

One female student stands up and decides to walk around.

Teacher: “ sit down.”
Student: “I’m getting some paper.” Then she proceeds to ask the female sitting directly next to her for paper.

Refection
I believe people cannot construct new knowledge without having certain basic skills. We learn these basic skills from other people. As a teacher, if you expect your students to take information and then construct new knowledge you need to model both good behavior and effective academic practices. Specifically, if solving an algebraic equation, you need to model how you want them to write it, which steps you want them to complete, and how neat you want them to be. Once you create that routine for them then they will have those basic skills to organize their thoughts to facilitate critical thinking.

The teacher’s use of the chalkboard is poor. How can a teacher expect the students to keep a neat and organized notebook when the teacher is disorganized at the board?

9:23 – New material begins

Student throws a paper ball across the room, missing the trash can. No consequences.

9:35 – Students are done. No one is doing work anymore.

9:39 – Class ends.

This teacher really isn’t a bad teacher. I think the problem was that at the beginning she was unable to establish authority. Now that she is comfortable with being in the front of the classroom, it is too late. Students have a standard they will continue to follow. If something upsets their expectation, conflicts will surely arise. She will be fine next year.