"A Guide to Classroom Observation and Instruction"

Article #1


“A Guide to Classroom Observation and Instruction”

The first two weeks have gone by in the internship and I’m starting to get a grasp on what I need to be doing in this class everyday and what I need to be looking for as an observer and later in life, a teacher. The article starts out in saying that school is a building full of involuntary students meaning that they are forced to be there but federal law. The trick is to get the students to be voluntary students and get them to want to come to school everyday either because they want to learn, or they want to be there. The past week I have been observing the class and I’ve been looking for the ways that the teacher has been teaching the class. For example, the teacher has been using the SMART Board to teach the lessons. This gets the message across to the students while the students are having fun using the Board. I believe that this is a huge way to get the kids to learn things. I believe that kids need to be having fun when they are learning, especially when the kids in the class aren’t excited to learn or be there. During my observing I haven’t observed the students who have shown that they didn’t want to be there. All the students in the class seem happy to be there but in like any class get side tracked, leave for the bathroom, and get distracted by talking about things that happen out of class.
The article also talks about observing the non-verbal behavior of the teacher. The he/she move around, make contact with individual students or groups of students, and does she interact with them and make sure they are on the right track with their learning. I haven’t been observing what the teacher does when she’s not in the middle of lesson. It didn’t really cross my mind that it was important for the teacher not to just sit there. I understand that it is important for the teacher to be always interacting with the students but I jus have never really noticed how it was done.
The article also goes into detail about when a student is absent numerous amounts of times, and then you should investigate and see what is going on with the student. Why is he/she always absent? Is there something wrong, or do they just not want to be there? As a teacher you should know what is going on with the students in your class.
The article also states that, as a teacher, you should get to know your school’s special help personnel. Besides the school counselors and the principles there should be some kind of “mental health supervisor” in the school. If you have problems with a student or you think a student is having problems then you should set up a meeting with them to discuss it.
Basically the whole article talked about what I should be looking for in a teaching environment. They gave me several ways to observe the room. I learned how I need to observe the teacher and her teaching styles. Is she interacting with the students? Is she getting the lesson across in a clear manner? I also need to be able to observe the students. I need to be able to indentify who wants to be there and who doesn’t. Who is going to sit down and do there work, and who is going to fool around and get off track. All of these things you need to be indentifying as a teacher in order to successful.