POST-OBSERVATION CONFERENCE

Classroom Teacher

Teachers may respond to the six questions prior to the post-observation conference. The
responses may be used as an artifact of evidence (4a).


Name of Teacher: Aleya Shehata
School: Spry Middle School
Date of Classroom Observation: Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Date of Scheduled Post-Observation
Conference:
Friday, October 25, 2013

1. In general, how successful was the lesson? Did the students learn what you intended for
them to learn? How do you know? (1c, 3d, 4a)

The lesson was somewhat successful. The students were applying their skills with operations in
scientific notation to real-world scenarios. It was a unique situation because we took a day off
from the unit we were originally learning (solving equations) to go back and practice a difficult
skill from the previous unit. The kids really struggled with these operations, but worked together
to make it through the assignment. The students still have to do a lot of practice with these
operations, which is something I am spiraling throughout the year to get them more comfortable
with these types of problems. I did not get to the point where they will create their own
examples, but it is something I plan to do with the kids whenever we get the chance.


2. If you were able to bring samples of student work, what do those samples reveal about those
students levels of engagement and understanding? (3c, 3d)

The students were not as engaged as I would like them to be in this lesson. Because of all the
external factors that were happening, they were not focused unless I specifically walked up to
them in the class. The student work that they completed was not to the best of their ability, but
we will be revisiting these types of questions in order to make sure the students really
understand what they are completing. The student work does not really reveal their level of
engagement or understanding in this particular lesson, but getting them to understand these
topics is a work in progress and the work they complete will, hopefully, eventually show a higher
level of understanding of the material.



3. Comment on your classroom environment (i.e. procedures, student behavior, and your use
of physical space). To what extent did these contribute to student learning? (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e)

The classroom environment on this particular day was crazy. Normally, the kids come in to
class, sit in their assigned seats, and write their homework down in their agendas. On this day,
the students had to change their seats several times and then were put back in their original
seats. Also, because of the videotaping, the students were a lot more wound up than they
usually are, and this had a negative effect on their work in class.


4. Comment on ways in which your instruction engaged students in learning, (e.g., activities,
grouping of students, questioning). To what extent were they effective? (1e, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3e)

The whole point of the clue activity is to motivate the students to complete each assignment in
their groups to receive a clue. In all previous lessons that I have taught like this, the students
are completely engaged in the activity, because they are interested in finding the clue. Also, it
requires students to discuss with one another because everyone needs to understand their
solution to be able to earn the clue. The students were grouped heterogeneously in order to
allow them to be able to assist one another. As I was walking around, I was supposed to be
questioning kids on their assignments, but I, too, was not myself while teaching that day and
had a hard time focusing on working with the kids and exercising proper questioning techniques.
This lesson was not effective.

5. Comment on the resources you chose for this lesson and the rationale behind those choices.
(1d, 1e)

I chose questions similar to questions in their assessment in order to practice the skills that the
kids seemed to have had a hard time with the first time around.

6. a) Did you depart from your plan? If so, how and why? (3e)

The lesson was much shorter than originally anticipated because of the time lost at the
beginning of the period.
b) If you had a chance to teach this lesson again to the same group of students, what would
you do differently, from planning through execution? (4a)

Basically everything. If there wasnt videotaping in the class, I would have departed more
from the plan and gone back to whole group instruction to provide more guidance to the
whole entire class before they worked in their smaller groups. I also hope that I would have
been in a right state of mind to really focus the kids more on their assignments and provide
more guidance as they work. I am very unhappy with this lesson and wish I could have
started it again with different expectations and hopefully a different outcome.