FIU

Off-Campus Observation Map

Your Name: Juan D Balleza

E-Mail: Jball024@fiu.edu

Name of School: Miami Senior High School

Name of Teacher Observed: Mr. Turres
Observation Date: 10/10/2014

Describe the teaching

environment. Who are the
children? Who is the teacher?
How might the school environment
impact what happens in the
classroom?

Town: Miami
Class: Band
Time: 7:20 8:50 am

State: Florida
Grade(s) 9th, 10th
Date Submitted: 10/13/2014

-The observation took place in Miami senior High school, in an orchestra room, with a variety of
percussion instruments, chairs, stands, musical posters around the room and about 10 keyboards,
apparently they have different music classes in there, the one we observed was a band class with students
around 14 or 15 years old, with different levels and abilities with their instruments. Mr Turros is a teacher
between 40 and 50 years old, he has a very calm way of teaching but he also has character, he is willing to
learn new things, you can see the that he has a good relationship with the students and how his method
helps them learn.

What were the teachers goals for

the class/ensemble? How did
she/he act on those?

The teacher has a couple of concerts throughout the school year, his way of teaching motivates the students
to be prepared for the concerts, he knows the students, he knows their levels and helps them get better, he
treats them respectfully and teaches them how to work in groups and better their level using different
books.

What teaching/rehearsal strategies

did you see? What was the
learning sequence?

'The professor from time to time changes the classroom environment and instructs the students in a circle
so that the students are not bored in the same routine and can to listen to each other. The professor also
asks questions to students about what they are rehearsing for they understand what they are playing and the
style of music of piece.

The classroom

What would you do differently?

What was missing from the lesson?

I would make them play by instruments to practice their parts separately so they can help each other and
also work more on their posture when they are going to play

What evidence did you observe

that would indicate that the
learning goals were met?

When we entered the classroom the teacher changed the classroom environment and put students in circle
so that they could hear each other, each of us took his instrument and we got together to play. He would
try and work on their technique, as well as their tuning and the dynamics of the piece for the students to
understand what they were playing, he used two different books; one for technique articulation, scales and
dynamics, and the other book containing a variety of pieces, some easy and others more complicated.

What National Standards did you

see?

Development skills, techniques, and processes in the arts strengthen our ability to remember focus on,
process, and sequence information (M.U.68.S.2). Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

How did students engage in the

classroom? What was happening
at the time when students were
really focused?

Students are quite independent and knew what they had to do and were following the rules of the
classroom, respect their teacher and their other classmates, stayed quiet when another person is talking or
is working on the piece with the professor, also were quite focused and concentrated on every tip that the
professor gave the class.

Describe a "teachable moment"

that you might have witnessed.

A memorable moment in this observation was when a student of saxophone asked me for advice on
whether it was necessary to go to a University to study music, then to explain how important and beneficial
is a college degree and all the skills and preparation that the University gives you, I think that really
convinced him into thinking better about going to college.

What constructive comments might you make about this lesson/rehearsal?

A comment about this lesson would be to take some more time separating them by instrument and also working a little more on
their posture when they are going to play.

What is your overall assessment of this teacher, the students and the lesson/rehearsal?
A comment about the teacher would be that maybe he could be a little more strict with the students, without being disrespectful,
about the students, maybe they can be more interested on the class and about the lesson, I thought it was a good idea to change the
environment by making a circle so that they could hear each other.