general thoughts and observations on life

#General thoughts and observations on life how to#

I also ask them to write the goal(s) for the lesson, objectives, and expected outcome. In my school, teachers are expected to list the standard they are teaching on the board for all students to see. Teaching the standards ensures that the teacher uses grade-level content relevant to the course they teach. Teachers should understand what it is they are expected to teach throughout the school year. Standard-based instruction is the foundation for your lesson. Let’s take a closer look at the three components of a lesson. The school administrator should know and be able to explain to teachers what they expect and hope to see when observing a lesson. Teachers should include and explain how they will address these in their lesson and how they will measure (evidence) a student’s understanding of this component after the lesson. This is too often an underutilized practice in the schools which may be most served by regular calibration of the tools and expectations for effective pedagogy.

The schools that best serve our most vulnerable students are very often the schools where teachers and administrators spend a lot of quality time talking about teaching. Observations are part of any good job-embedded professional-development cycle.

Teaching is a practice that should be thoughtfully developed. In fact, if you are providing feedback, teachers should welcome observations. As an observer, you are much more likely to be supportive of the observed teacher when you elicit the questions and points of entry for the observed teacher that are more likely to build on their knowings. These are the insights that improve teaching practice in both the immediate and the long term. But when my students are engaged, I can more frequently and accurately trace their engagement to my pedagogical choices. Practically speaking, I don’t always know why my students weren’t engaged (and these reasons can often be legitimately out of my control, and thus, less fruitful to learn from). There is a great deal of richness available in the discussion of snapshots of engagement.

#General thoughts and observations on life how to#

How to reach those snapshots of engagement sooner? How to stretch them out longer? When were students engaged? How did you know they were engaged? What were they doing? What were they saying? And, what was working for them in those engaging moments? The feedback can flow from there. I like to begin my feedback conversations by centering snapshots of engagement. Your debrief should be a conversation-with both parties asking questions of the other. It is basically to play some sort of omniscient being to suggest that you can assess the total value of something while only seeing it partially.Īsk the observed teacher to ask you questions about their teaching. In order to provide informed feedback, you have to have seen the entire production: beginning, middle, and end. And on that same day, in the same classroom, with that same group of students, if you would have come into my room for the wrong 15 minutes-you would have strategized with another teacher or administrator about how to politely but firmly counsel me out of the profession.

I have taught lessons in which if you came into the room for the right 15 minutes, you would have legitimately thought you were witnessing an exceptionally gifted teaching talent. And if the day’s circumstances do not make it possible for you to be engaged in the lesson-apologize and reschedule the multitasking is such a bad look. Immerse your whole self in the lesson so that you can experience it from the inside rather than as a detached, and often distracting, onlooker. Take 10 minutes to really study a kiddo or two. Look for details that confirm students’ engagement. Talking to students is a great way to measure their thinking. When appropriate, ask students questions. The observation space should be held in the highest regard possible. It’s so disrespectful to come into someone’s class and not be engaged. That misses the mark in terms of providing informed feedback. To observe someone’s lesson without preknowledge of its design is to assess their teaching against an imagined perception of how you would have taught it. Critically, though, it is possible to see a good lesson and not realize it without knowing beforehand the larger context of and the narrative arcs in the learning experience. Most importantly, what is being observed are the teacher’s planning habits and how well ideas in planning can be implemented into practice. I think it’s fine to thought-partner in the prebrief because this shouldn’t be a “gotcha” situation. Meet beforehand (preferably not the same day) and have the teacher explain what and how they are planning to teach. To be an informed observer, it’s important to know what the teacher is intending to do in the lesson.