Observation 1

For my observation lesson I had students start by looking at a word splash of different heroes such as firefighters, police officers, Gandhi and others. I had them predict/discuss what all of these people could be considered. I asked them to think about it individually first and then did a pair share. We then discussed it as a whole group. After this I moved them into a Frayer. I had them make their own by folding a piece of paper. I modeled each step for them and then wrote on the board what to label each section. Then we came up with one example each for examples, non examples, and characteristics. After that I asked students to work by themselves and try to list at least 5 in each category. Next I had them pair up and asked them to try to add at least 3 more to each category. Finally I had them get into groups and add a few more things. Then we arranged our desks in a circle and discussed the examples we had. We were supposed to write a definition for a hero after we discussed some of these but the class ended before we could.

I feel that overall the class went pretty well. The students were interested but at times it seemed like maybe there should have been more to it. I had one student in particular who did not want to join in what we were doing. She was doodling in her sketchbook and I had to ask her repeatedly to stop and to join in with what were doing. I asked if her anything was wrong because she seemed somewhat out of sorts and she said she had a rough week. On the other hand, a student who generally doesn't participate was doing more. I was bummed we didn't get to the definition and looking back I could have pushed them further to make sure we got to that. Also, I should have told them that what we folded was a frayer. I had to redirect students a lot. They had a lot of energy today due to shortened periods and a pep rally. That took some time away from the lesson but not much. Overall I was pretty happy to find that at least I wasn't completely terrible.

According to Dr. Mortimore I had a good repoire with my students. This is a fun class, I have a lot of interesting, bright students who love to talk and contribute. Most of them make it very easy to talk to them and interact with them. Other things from observation that were well done were my circulation of the room and redirecting students to keep them on task.

As far as things I should improve, I need to work a little bit on the pacing of my lessons. I probably should have just had them work in pairs instead of having them get into another group. This would have kept the pace moving and we would have had more time to create a definition and also talk about how our different versions of heroes, and other culture's different ideas of a hero will be important to our Hero Myth unit. Towards the end of the lesson I should have brought it back to more direct instruction maybe with guided questions concerning potential relevance to the unit. These will be things I try to improve in my teaching by really checking my lessons to make sure that there is that closure and that wrap up that really lets students know why this is important. Also I'll be trying to make sure that my pace is just right for my lessons.

In this upcoming week I'll be giving a series of quizzes, tests, writing assignments, and speeches to students so I'll be able to see if my students are understanding what we're talking about and what we should go back to if needed.

This week was a little frustrating and felt very long so I'm happy to it over with and I'm looking forward to taking all of this feedback into consideration and making my lessons even better.

Until next time have a good week!