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Dawn Meyer's 1st Period Honors English 9 Class (01/23)

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Dawn Meyer's 1st Period Honors English 9 Class (01/23)

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A group of us observed Dawn Meyer yesterday morning. She could be found in the hallway at about 7:15 greeting students and yelling general motherly corrections and/or encouragements. It's obvious that her presence fosters an environment in her classroom that is interactive, comfortable for students of all personalities, and fun. She really is a master of managing organized chaos - she allows students to relax and be themselves, but they also have clear expectations and respect for her and one another. I think it takes a special kind of teacher to make a group of freshmen actually enjoy their english class at 7:30 in the morning

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Observation of Chemistry Halloween Demos (10/28)

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Observation of Chemistry Halloween Demos (10/28)

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Carrie and Tierney went through a story line of a night of terror for a young boy trick or treating, and took their kids through various demos including elephant's toothpaste, dry ice, etc. I have a video clip of Carrie performing the rainbow demo, during which her rag tag 7th period chemistry class can be heard shouting in the background comments such as "she's a magician", as well as various profanities. It was quite comical to see and reminded me of the lure of simple curiosity, and how we should all use that more to hook our students (especially the ones that aren't grade-driven).

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Observation of 1st period AP World History Class (10/04)

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Observation of 1st period AP World History Class (10/04)

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I observed Mr. Seyfried's AP World History class for about 20 minutes. He is a high energy teacher that actively seeks ways to praise his students. It was fun to observe how his approach to motivating students is so vastly different from mine even though we have the same end goal in mind. If you have sophomores, it's worth noting that AP World History is now a quite rigorous AP course and will set the standard for AP classes junior and senior year.

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Observation of 1st period English 10 class (09/27)

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Observation of 1st period English 10 class (09/27)

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Bonnie and I got to watch Natalie Thomas and Kim Chase co-teach a sophomore class. In true homecoming week spirit, Kim taught proper formal dinner etiquette, including a place setting tutorial, math tricks for calculating tips for servers, and of course, lots of colorful stories from her homecoming days!

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Impromptu Observation of  7th Period Drawing I Class (10/16)

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Impromptu Observation of  7th Period Drawing I Class (10/16)

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While running errands on Wednesday during 7th period, I found myself over in A-hall. I took a little time to walk around Wendy Green's Drawing I Class and was very impressed by her ability to keep students of all different levels on track. If you want to see differentiation in its most literal form, check out an art class. One practical take-away: she does not address the class as a whole for instructions. She gives "table talks" in which she checks in with each table group and gives relevant announcements and instructions for the day/week. It seemed more effective than those whole group instructions we all do at the beginning of class while students are busy chit chatting, day dreaming, and anything other than listening to us.

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Observation of 1st period Honors Geometry Class (10/18)

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Observation of 1st period Honors Geometry Class (10/18)

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I observed Mr. Burke's Honors Geometry class for about 30 minutes. I chose this class because many of my students are in Honors Geometry, so it was a chance to see how they operate in another content class. The students were working with Graphs and inequalities (math stuff), and Mr. Burke was running a pair-share type activity. Students paired with their seatmates, worked through one side of a worksheet, while their table mates worked through the other side. After time was up, each set of partners shared their problem and solutions to each other. Students seemed to be engaged, off their phones, and ACTUALLY talking with each other about the content. Mr. Burke was roaming through the groups, offering minimal guidance, and oftentimes forcing the kids to have to think for themselves.

One additional note worth mentioning: I had Mr. Burke give me a copy of the assignment as well and I had no idea how to do it and I'm an adult. We expect a lot out of our kids: becoming borderline experts in 4 different core contents, as well as club or sport involvement. Something to consider when determining our own rigor and assessments.