Teacher Observation: Life Science

This week I had the opportunity to observe a well-loved teacher at my placement school. LG is quirky and kind but sets high expectations for all six periods of freshman life science students he works with. When students walked in, they went to the cabinet with their period number posted on it and grabbed their lab journal. They then went to take their seat at their assigned desk. LG opened the class by going over homework. The students would be taking a test the following day and so the lesson for that day was reviewing concepts that would be on the test. Going over the homework brought up many questions and sparked good discussion. LG has a card system for calling on students. Each student fills out a card with interesting things about his or herself at the beginning of the year and then he uses those cards to call on students during classroom discussion. Within the first half of the class, every name in his stack of cards had been called. This not only randomizes who he calls on, but causes students to be constantly listening for their name to be called. When class was almost over, LG reminded his students that there would be a test tomorrow and wished them a good day. Very simple, friendly and effective. both the cabinet for lab journals and LG's card stacks are great ideas for high schoolers of all ages.

Throughout the entire period, LG used questioning techniques to not only gauge student understanding, but to also faciliate discussion and help his students study. Many of the questions were closed becuase there were specific answers students needed to understand. However, I feel that this particular teacher would easily use open-ended questions during laboratory explorations. Again, the stack of cards LG employs eliminates any gender, ethnicity, or ability bias. Once all the homework was checked, LG had students pull out the whiteboards and practice various problems in their table groups. He gave them a limited amount of time to do each problem and used an oldschool timing device to do so. As the tables worked, LG circulated moving between tables to answer questions and monitor student work. When most tables had a completed answer, he went over the problem on the board. Instead of doing the work on the board himself, he could have had students present their answer to the class.

Today, most high school science classrooms rely on some sort of technology to function. During the 55-minute period I was observing his class, LG used the projector to show work he was doing of the doc-cam, and to present questions from a powerpoint he had created. Students used whiteboards to share their answers. LG and the students were both kept accountable of time by the use of a timing device. The use of technology in this class was thoroughly integrated and many different forms.

In conclusion, I found LG to be an incredibly dynamic teacher. It is clear that the expectations LG sets for his students are understood by the students and their is a mutual respect in the classroom. The way that LG questions the students keeps the freshmen on their toes and therefore out of trouble.