On Classroom Observations

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Part of my duties as Project Director for my district's Teaching American History grant include completing classroom observations of participating teachers. Like many teachers I have spent little time over the years in other teachers' classrooms actively observing their teaching and student learning.

The observations were a revelation to me. I LOVED them. I liked seeing how teachers incorporated Word Walls in their secondary classrooms, how they managed their classrooms, how they gave their students the opportunity, despite limited resources, to integrate technology into learning. I liked seeing which assignments teachers chose to feature on their walls, the lists of honor students and students of the month, the seating arrangements to maximize space (some classrooms now have 38 students).

The variety of teaching strategies engaged students and kept things interesting in the classroom. One of the classrooms had a greeter who took me to a seat and ever-so-quietly explained what students were doing that day and why.

This has led me to the conclusion that we (teachers) are missing out. We are not learning from each other like we should be. I don't work in a district, or even know of one nearby, where teachers are actively involved in the day-to-day process of teaching outside of their own classrooms.

Imagine what would happen in my room if I went to a teacher who is really good with video in her classroom and asked to observe one of the lessons so that I could better use video in mine? Or the guy across campus came to me to ask about beginning of class routines? What if one of the department teachers was having trouble with a group of students, but couldn't figure out what was going on and wanted another set of eyes on the problem? Wouldn't ALL of us improve? Wouldn't our students do better?

Fortunately, some of my colleagues agree with me so next year, we're going to make a concerted effort to get into each other's classrooms during the course of the year. We will, of course, have specific objectives each time we visit. Though the cohort is relatively small in relation to the rest of the teachers in the district, we are going to start making a difference one classroom at a time.

Where I've been, where I'm going...

It has been some time since I blogged. I am finding my new position a great professional challenge (in other words, it’s something new and very different). I’ve always enjoyed organizing things, so, really, this is right up my alley. I’m learning new things and recently gave input on a grant the district is applying for. That was an interesting process; I learned a lot about grant language, buzz words and creating a budget.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t left me much time for blogging or even trying out new strategies in the classroom. This is also the first year in my entire career that I am not teaching history or geography.

I was not expecting to miss teaching history quite as much as I do. Even my students ask me if I miss it. My journalism classes are great this year (newspaper and yearbook), but I do pine for my social science classes.

Last week, while at our first Lecture/Workshop we discussed how to take the ideas from the morning and apply them in the classroom. I found myself wishing that I had a class to work with so that I could try the ideas that the group came up with. I realized, however, that I could take many of the ideas and apply them to journalism and media studies.

Our morning lecture was devoted to Dr. Clarence Walker’s talk about his book “Mongrel Nation: The America Begotten by Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings,” where Walker posits that the U.S. has always been multi-cultural and it’s high time we admit that. He spoke eloquently about Hemings’ 38 year relationship with Jefferson and the 1998 media hoopla caused by DNA analysis of Hemings’ descendents that prove at least three of her children were fathered by Jefferson.

During the afternoon, 8^th and 11^th grade teachers discussed the meaning of the Jefferson/Hemings relationship, how to teach about Jefferson and how to teach about slavery (among MANY other related issues…such a great conversation). In the midst of all of this, we discussed James Callender’s attack on Jefferson using the media. That was when it hit me.

I could teach a great deal about U.S. history through Journalism. Why couldn’t we take media accounts of the Jefferson/Hemings relationship through history and look at the different ways the topic is discussed. How does a changing political climate effect the language used to describe a hot-button relationship in our history? My next task is to find newspaper articles that discuss the relationship, then I can write up the lesson!