The first class I observed was, honestly, pretty boring. In the entire time we observed, the teacher took care of a couple of brief administrative tasks, passed out a handout, and had the class read it. She occasionally clarified a concept or two from the reading when a student asked a question, but that’s it. The students didn’t seem all that interested in the material, and the teacher allowed them to listen to their mp3 players while they read (or pretended to). My understanding is that the HS has implemented a program where students read for 15 minutes in every class, and I guess that’s what this teacher was doing, but it still seemed a little lacking somehow. I realize I only observed part of the class and it may have gotten fascinating as soon as we left, but I can only write what I see, right?
The second time I observed I went to a resource math class, much more up my alley than the first (a business class). The teacher was engaged with the students and it was interesting to see how he worked with them and showed them what he was doing to figure out, for example, the surface area of this flattened box. He was able to simplify concepts for his students without necessarily dumbing them down or *over*simplifying, which I appreciated seeing. I hope in future observations to see more of the second example and less of the first…
