As our first task for this course in methodology, the teacher asked us to reflect upon important things we should mention to a teacher whose lesson we are about to observe, so I took some minutes and this is what I came out with:
• If it’s the first time I meet the teacher I will definitely need to introduce myself, telling her my name and the teacher training college I study at.
• It will be very important also to clarify dates for visiting the class and timetables so as to avoid future conflicts.
• It will be nice to tell the teacher that we are there to observe how the students work for the teacher to be at ease and her work not to be influenced by my presence.
• Something that is really important is to ask all questions before the class starts:
- What book they use so as to be placed in the picture of the lesson
- Where should I sit down in the classroom in order not to influence classroom atmosphere
- Whether she wants to introduce me to the students or not, since some teachers prefer observers to take an active role and some others prefer a passive one
• Finally, I’ll give the teacher the change to tell me/explain me anything she might consider interesting in her classroom (some teachers love to tell you about individual cases or group behavior). This generates a better atmosphere between the teacher and the observer and the class gets less influenced.
It is important to have a humble attitude, we are there to learn different ways to go about a classroom and the teacher we are observing has experience on that. So, I’ll kindly invite you to go on reading how the experience goes about in future posts. =)
