Observation Assignment #3

The third class that I observed was a Calculus class. The students entered the room quietly and pretty well behaved. They went right to their seats and only talked to each other briefly before the teacher began class. As the teacher was talking, I noticed that about three-quarters of the class was paying attention very closely. The others either had their head down or were looking down at their phone, not focusing at all, or only very little. The teacher took attendance by verbally calling out each student’s name, and they responded if they heard their name called.

The teacher then distributed a worksheet to each student. She told the students that the worksheet contained material that they learned the previous class, and they would go over the first problem together as a class. Before they started that though, the teacher walked over to each student and collected his or her homework. They then did the problem using a smart board. The teacher would ask students to volunteer to either come up and actually write out a step, or instruct her how to do it. She used this same strategy until the problem was finished. The students then worked on the worksheets independently. As they did this, one student approached the teacher and asked her for the materials from the last class that she was absent from. The teacher then talked to that student for a few minutes, and gave her another worksheet.

The teacher then walked around the room and observed how the students were doing. When she noticed success on a certain problem, she would say something to the student like “Good job” or “Very good”. She did this very often, and it seemed to give the students a little extra confidence. When the teacher noticed any sign of misbehavior in a student, she quickly addressed it to make sure that it did not become an issue. This strategy seemed to work very well, as there were never any major behavioral issues during class. The class very rarely got too loud to the point that the teacher had to address it, but when it did, the teacher only had to tell them to quiet down, and they did so without any argument or attitude.

When the students finished the worksheet, the teacher instructed them to keep it in their folders, and that they would go over it next class. The teacher then handed out another worksheet to each student for them to do for homework . The bell then rang shortly after that, and the teacher dismissed the class. The students then got up and left the room in the same quiet and well-behaved manner that they had entered it in. Overall, I thought the teacher showed great classroom management. She used positive reinforcement, which the students seemed to respond very well to. She was also very quick to stop any distractions or signs of misbehavior in a stern fashion. This prevented any issues from arising in class.