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I got to “meet” with my classmates last night. I put meet in quotes because it was an online meeting in real time using a program called elluminate. It allows for voice discussion and text chat. There is also a board where things can be posted. I’ve only used it 3 times now but it’s very enjoyable and makes me feel like I’m in school again—oh wait, I AM in school :)

Anyway, I got a suggestion to discuss how my observation with my principal went. Well that was about 6 weeks ago but I do remember it pretty well. Here’s my take on my observation a little bit after the fact… (The participation log from the Observation is still available from my post back in November)

Observation

Today my principal came in to observe my class. This is something she does twice a year formally and at random times more informally. I’ve never been bothered by observations. I’ve always gotten good reviews and fair assessments. I was a little nervous though because I did a Smart Board lesson for my observation and this was the first time my boss has seen the board in action. I wanted to make sure she felt like she was getting her money’s worth. The lesson went really well. I did a combination of lessons I found on http://exchange.smarttech.com/ . The lessons were on verb tenses. I know from past years that it would have been a very dry lesson but they were extremely well engaged. I used this opportunity to do one of my logs of student engagement since this is already something my boss does during observations. All students were engaged!! I think that is a first! Usually there is always one student who is off in lala land that I don’t notice quickly enough to bring their attention back to the lesson but this time they were all there. My boss also noted that one of the students that she has never seen contribute to class was contributing and that is a very big deal! It’s true, this one student never used to raise his hand for anything. He would answer reluctantly if I called on him but he was itching to demonstrate something, anything on the board so his hand was up constantly. Overall my boss loved the lesson and the kids behaved well for the most part except a few were a little over zealous and wanted to show off what they could do. I’d rather over enthusiasm than the opposite. I wanted to mention that this behavior was not at all unusual and I don’t think it reflects on having the principal in the room. Some kids are always a little off the wall and that’s part of the reason why they’re at my school. They may have been slightly better behaved than normal but not drastically so. I think she got a fair and accurate picture of life in my classroom. Overall, it was a great observation