The dreaded observation.

Today was my first official observation in the classroom.  I was so worried about it. I’ve been literally making myself nauseous with worry.  But it could not have turned out better if it were scripted. They were off the wall all day. I was so scared they were going to be out of control while she was there, and cuss her out. They’ve been known to do this with visitors. So I talked with them about it beforehand to tell them we were having a visitor, and that she was going to observe our experiment this afternoon. I told them she would be writing things down, but she wouldn’t be writing anything about them, and that she was there to observe me and see how I’m doing. The whole time I’m giving this speech they’re telling me how they’re going to act up when she gets here and do this and do that to  make me look bad. But as soon as the observer walked in the room, they were like perfect little angels. It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen. One boy even slyly caught my attention then winked at me and told me “I got you.” They were perfectly behaved, and they followed all directions and did all their work. We’re doing an experiment, and during the course of the lesson they generated ideas for 4 more experiments they want to do. All of this completely unprompted by me. It was amazing.

After the lesson I went to the hall with her to go over her notes.  She told me she was very happy with what I did and to just continue in the direction I’m headed and I’ll be fine. She said I did a nice job of asking higher order questions and then allowing them to flounder a little to come up with their own answer, but guiding them there and not letting them get frustrated. She said she was happy to see we were doing some hands-on type things since many of the students she had observed thus far had just been doing bookwork and worksheets. She was also pleased with the rewards system I devised with their notebooks, since they have a particular fascination with school supplies. I bought them each a notebook and told them they had to use it for their lap report, but that if they participate and complete the lab report they can keep the notebook when we’re finished. She told me that was a great idea, that she was happy I had been paying attention and getting to know them, and that I should continue to try and find ways to use things I know they’re interested in to motivate them. So she was very positive overall, and I got all possible points for the observation.

When I came back into the room the kids wanted to know “What did she say?! How did you do?!” I was so pleased with them. It was perplexing, but also kind of made me think like “Well, I guess I must be doing at least something right with them”, which is something I’ve been very worried about. So today was a good day.

~ by ambiguouslyexact on April 5, 2007.