Observation #3

          For this observation, I focused on classroom management.  I noticed that every class the students enter the room really loudly and they always walk around the room and talk to their friends before the finally take their usual seat.  Its also interesting that the majority of the students arrive in the class after the bell rings.  There is always a "do now" activity ready for the students, but they often talk and do other things rather than focusing on the activity.  It seems that class begins once the teacher approaches the front of the room and starts talking to them, but there are many times that she needs to watch the hallways between passing, or has to talk to other teachers/faculty before class.  Until the teacher is focused on the students, they are not focused on the class.  

          The teacher doesn't seem to formally take attendance.  Rather than wasting the five minutes to call out every name, she jots down the names of students who arrived late to class or are absent and she starts the students on an assignment.  Once the students were working she went to the computer and saved the attendance online.  She also knows which students were absent the day before, which I thought was impressive because she has so many periods to teach.  She grabs the papers that students who are late or were absent the day before, had missed and she explains to them what they need to do to make-up.  The teacher passes out the papers to each student individually, and she collects papers this way.  Sometimes she uses this as a way to talk to the students.
          
          During my most recent visit, the teacher had the student groups practice their presentations for her (and myself) before their official presentation the next week.  She would make numerous criticisms (mostly constructively) but there was not a lot of praise.  There were some groups where she would stop their presentation and tell them things they needed to change.  I understand that many of the groups are behind and they missed obvious directions that she has repeated over and over, but I feel like the also deserved a little praise.  Again, the teacher quickly corrected poor behavior, but didn't praise the students who were doing the right thing.  

          About five minutes before the period ended, the students were already packed up and standing near the door, ready to leave.  In this class the teacher does not dismiss the students, instead they leave when the bell rings.  They don't wait for the teacher to acknowledge that they are leaving, they just loudly leave the room and enter the hallway, the same way that they enter it.