My classroom observation was a little unique. I work at the Kodiak school district as the Substitute Coordinator, and a few weeks ago, we were extremely low on subs and I was placed in a classroom. I was ecstatic because I’ve wanted to be in front of a classroom for a while. I met the teacher after the 1st period and she gave me the lesson plan for the day. I was subbing for 6th-grade social studies, and the focus that day was the Caribbean Islands.
The students came in, of course seeing a sub, and you could tell they were already about to burst with excitement. However, I started off with introducing myself, and that they had a small three-minute assignment to get through. I told them that if they completed the assignment without talking or getting off subject, they would be able to go around the classroom and tell each other what they were going to be Halloween — which they loved. After the assignment, and the 5 minutes of listening to everyone’s costume ideas, we went onto the assignment. I allowed them to talk to groups as long as they didn’t get too loud. I had to hush the class a few times, but for the most part, they were great kids.
Since I haven’t observed an actual teacher, I couldn’t tell you three transitions, but I know that before the teacher left she had to walk around the room a few times to get kids to settle down, she would walk up and check in with certain students and that seemed to help them to calm down and work on the assignments.
I definitely will be walking around my classroom a lot, and engaging with each student. And Positive reinforcement because it seemed to work so well!