Classroom Observation

Sammi, Sam, and I were able to get to Mr. Ryan's class during much of his prep period before the class we were to observe. We took advantage of this time to ask him questions and he got to know us better. He told us about Junior High English and how he splits the class into two periods; one heavy in writing and the other heavy in reading. We talked to him about our teaching which will take place later and he was intrigued by our ideas and excited to see our final lesson.

Finally the kids showed up. They were an absolute hoot. They came in talking and throwing books. Sammi, Sam, and I had a lot to observe even before the class started. As soon as the kids came in I realized that the lesson I was thinking of teaching would need to be adjusted to fit a middle school level. 

As the class started Mr. Ryan began by asking something along the lines of what would you ask your hero if you they were accused of lying or cheating? Mr. Ryan gave them some time and then asked for there answers. Mr. Ryan was very good at this because you cannot simply call on raised hands like you can in a collage level environment. He has to call on those he knew needed help, and he had to help those who always wanted to talk all the time to keep their answers relevant and to the point.

Mr. Ryan then showed a video, but had a very hard time getting it to work. The projector and computer he was using was not that new and needed a little bit of help from his laptop. I took a note of this, as we will be showing a video, and have planned to come early to test the video when we teach.

Another thing that Mr. Ryan did was have the students turn to their neighbor and work in groups of two. Sam and I actually got to work with some of the students. I want to say that this was good for most of the class but some of the students were hard to get to cooperate. I am not sure if there is a better way or if those kids are just hard to reach no matter what. Mr. Ryan did tell us that part of his class is special Ed and so there is another teacher there to keep in line those students. This will be one challenge that we will have while teaching.

Sammi, Sam and I were torn between which story for change that we wanted to use. My story is one possibility. When we considered mine, I went back and made hug improvements on it so that it could be more accessible to the students. Also, rather then just playing it like I did in our class I want to fully explain what the video is and what they should look for before I play it.

One thing that we struggled with a little is we wanted to have our lesson tie into what they kids are already learning this semester. However, I am not sure we will be able to do that as nicely as we had hoped. But I think that our lesson will be very fun and very helpful for the kids. We are all really looking forward to it.