The Classroom Environment - Creating a culture for Learning

• Go to original post by Ange Molony
• Posted at 11:43 am on Fri, Mar 23, 2012

Peer observation can be a genuinely meaningful experience for everyone, if and only if everyone wants it to be. 

I've certainly been involved in my fair share of rushed and incomplete peer observations sessions. I've used excuses about being busy or it being unnecessary or about how it can be a waste of valuable time. But I've also been a part of observation sessions that are focused and worthwhile, and that bring about opportunities for clear and meaningful self-reflection. 

Just recently, a coordinator visited my G12 Maths SL class to observe my lesson. Throughout the process my coordinator played the role of my mirror - the best tool for reflection! 

We had a quick pre-observation chat and I said that I wanted to focus on The Classroom Environment - Creating a culture for learning. This meeting was really important for setting the tone for the whole process. Because I chose the focus it meant that I was in control of my learning and development, it instantly felt more like a professional development opportunity than an evaluation process (in this case it was a PD opportunity, but the same set up could be used for evaluation). We all know our strengths and weaknesses and we all have aspects of our teaching that we'd like to improve. We are either getting better or worse as teachers, nobody stays the same. Own it!
So, I established a goal and we decided that he would be looking at how on-task my students were and he would also script tape the entire lesson (like the person in the courtroom but without the weird typewriter and the woolly jumper, they always wear woolly jumpers).

My observer did two key things during the lesson:

• Wrote down everything that was said
• Took an on-task vs off-task survey of every student (he did this every 5 minutes of the lesson)

Not an easy thing to do!

We followed up on the next school day and I looked at the stats and the transcript of my lesson. As I read through the transcript I was immediately self reflecting and sharing my thoughts about the lesson. "I should have done this.....", "I wanted this to happen here.....", "That worked out really well", "Wow, I say some weird things" "The kids responded better than I expected" etc etc.  Throughout my own self-reflection my observer continued to act as a mirror. He didn't interrupt or tell me which aspects of my lesson to focus on, he just allowed me to talk about the parts of my lesson that worked, that didn't work, that I enjoyed and that I didn't enjoy. With clarifying questions, active listening and by adding or reminding me of things that he observed, he really enabled a very powerful opportunity for self reflection. 

At the end of our discussion (my self-reflection and analysis of my own lesson) he helped me decide on what changes I would make so that I could improve my lessons and ultimately continue to improve the Culture of Learning in my classes.

These words on the image below are a great for self-reflection and for deciding on ways to implement changes in your class.  

I'm going to eliminate some bad habits, modify some of my techniques and experiment with some new approaches.
Perhaps after your next lesson you might glance over these words and make a plan to make a difference in your class?

Ange Molony

Twitter: @MissAngeDP