Reflect on your classroom observation
1.) Describe effective management strategies you observed for opening a lesson, applied during a lesson, and for lesson closure.
2.) Name 3 common transitions you observed and how did the teacher handle those.
3.) Describe a strategy that you observed and may apply to your classroom.
- The main management strategy for an opening of a lesson I’ve observed is having a soft warm up for the students prepared on the board. As the students walk in from the hallway, they know there is going to be warm up on the board that the teacher is going to discuss with the class, so they get right to work as they come in. I think during a lesson, proximity has been the number one observed method for keeping the class focused and on task. Teachers are always moving about the class. After the lesson, teachers close with questions, handout new homework assignments, and then explain any extra information the students need to complete the homework assignment.
- One obvious transition I noticed is that teachers give their students a set amount of time to complete a project. When the time is closing in the teacher will announce that they have a minute or two to wrap things up and then give their attention back to the teacher. At MEHS the students all use a similar binder system. Sometimes between activities the teachers will have the students organize their binders between activities, that way assignments don’t get lost and students can prepare for the next assignment. Teachers also will wait in a particular spot every time during a transition so that students instinctively know that the teacher is waiting for them to move on.
- I definitely like the soft warm up problems at the beginning of class. I plan on becoming a math teacher and this is so applicable to math class. It helps activate prior knowledge and the students have a routine they can follow. Students walk straight in and know the expectation instead of waiting around for the teacher to tell them what to do.