Guided Math Observation

My principal observed my guided math block on Monday. Our observations are scheduled on an every-other-year rotation so it worked out great that this was my year! Today I met for my post-observation meeting and would like to share what an "outsider" had to share about how things are running in my classroom.

My feelings: I felt like the block didn't run as smoothly as they have been going all along. My class was having a loud day overall and had a tough time settling into partner and individual work. I was concerned that I had been working so hard, and then when my principal finally gets a chance to see it in action, my class turns into a circus. [Thanks a lot, Mother Nature, for all of the indoor recesses!!] The new concept was probably the most challenging of the year so my individual workers struggled significantly more on their own than they have up to this week. I had a lot of kids coming back and asking questions when they usually can ask each other and figure things out. I would have to reteach a lot of our lesson, which I did today and the kids did really well hearing things for the second time. 

My principal's thoughts: It wasn't a circus :) The kids were a little noisy but did get settled down after a few reminders here and there from me. She was impressed with how smoothly the transitions went- I didn't even have to announce where kids needed to go. When the timer beeped, kids wrapped up what they were doing and knew where to go next. It was nice to hear that all of our practicing has paid off. The kids were engaged and were able to recall the content later in the day when asked by our principal. It did make some sense to the students!   She shared that several people are keeping an eye on how this is working for me. Our Curriculum and Instruction director asked if I would be wiling to teach a mini session on guided math at our back-to-school workshops in August. It was a nice surprise and a little added pressure. There are some big changes being made to our schedule next year and creating longer math block is #3 in the order of scheduling. We talked about the pros and cons of having a common math block with 1 or 2 grade levels (2 or 4 classrooms) to meet even more needs. I'd be up for trying it!

We are taking our NWEA test next week so I will be able to draw some final conclusions when comparing Fall and Winter data. I'll share what I can decipher from the results soon.