Whew...formal observation =donezo! The observation consisted of three parts; pre-meeting, being observed for 30 minutes (which turned out to be more like 40), and the post-meeting. Although my squirrely boys who have improved so much were not showing off the entire extent of their great improvements, I thought the lesson went really well. I was pleased and felt comfortable. Dare I say I kind of even forgot the principal was there....for a few brief moments.
Overall I know the kids are listening SO much better than a few of the other times she came in and I am feeling like things are going more smoothly on a daily basis (which is more important to me than the outcome of a single observation). When we chatted afterwards, she first asked to share my feelings on the lesson (what I thought went well and what I would do differently). I kind of just wanted to hear what she had to say, but I went through my feelings and gave some additional background info on the new behavior management system I have been using etc. Her input was good and the only piece that she really pointed out that might have needed some tweaking was my pacing in certain parts. She thought I went through one exercise too quickly and that I allowed too much time for the kids to write the sentence at the end of the lesson. Small things and I told her that I purposefully allowed more time for them to write because some of them take longer. She suggested another way to do it and I will try that out next time.
She told me she was very impressed with how polite and attentive the children were when the star of the week was sharing. He was finishing up when she came in to see the Fast Track Lesson. I have about 5-10 minutes a day of circle time which includes a greeting and time for the star of the week to share. I have been working with the kids on being good listeners, asking questions, and being respectful of the person who is having the turn to share/talk. We always thank the person who brought in something to share and make sure to look but not touch any special things they bring in to show. She said my hard work was evident and that made me really happy. I think there are a lot of important lessons taught in that brief time, but they are important ones-listening, asking questions, saying please and thank you, looking at the person who is talking etc. etc.
She also said that my hard work in the area of classroom management was evident as well. Whew! I am really glad she got to see that because I
have been working hard and I definitely see and feel an improvement. Sometimes the kids are off when she comes in though (which is normal for any classroom and any teacher) and I was worried that she was getting to see the good things that are happening. She said she will do a formal write up of what she saw and I look forward to seeing that because our post observation chat was pretty brief.
I was pretty pleased that things went well so I signed out and went to get myself a latte during lunch. I never ever sign out and typically work through lunch everyday since I have a whole hour between AM and PM. I use all that time to grade, prep, clean up, get ready etc. Since I stepped out for coffee, I barely had time to eat, but I enjoyed every sip of that latte while I was teaching my PM kiddos. For some reason it feels really indulgent to have coffee
while teaching and I loved treating myself since I worked hard for it :)
Tomorrow I have a training, so Jilly is subbing for me. The training doesn't start until 10 am because there is an evening portion as well with parents, so I get to sleep in tomorrow! Yay! I can't make the evening part because I have class, so I get a slightly shorter work day. Another yay! I can use that time in the morning to review my presentations for class since I have dos presentaciones mañana. I feel bad that I kind of left the room without really getting truly ready for Jill because I had an appt. at 3:00 and I had to be there at 2:45, so I pretty much left as soon as the kids were on the buses. She is such a rockin' sub that she could handle anything, but I like to be really prepared and organized and this time I just didn't get it together....
Oh, and I am getting another student on Friday in my afternoon class. That is the 6th new kiddo in that class this year. Whew. I look at my other students who came mid year and can't even imagine the class without them now, so I know everything will be fine. I just always stress at the thought of another child. The last one I got has some behavioral challenges so I always worry that one new child will totally change the dynamic of the class. I have three challenging boys already in the pm, so I am worried about getting any additional children with those same behavioral issues. The pm class has only 8 boys out of 20, yet most of them are pretty wiggly and need a lot of redirecting compared to the morning class, which has more boys, yet has a greater number of more mature boys who are really on task most of the time. Fingers crossed the new student is more like that! In any event, my numbers are still lower than the other classes, so I am not complaining. It was just tough when I was getting a new student almost weekly for awhile there....
