Secondary Placement

Observation Sheet Management

Was your lesson plan effective
for managing the class?
Yes, both my lesson plans were effective for
managing the class. The students were very
well behaved, and they were kept busy doing
tasks. They were not disruptive in any way,
and complied with everything. However,
there was one student who was distracted
and was falling behind with the work. So I
went over to him to help him out, and gave
him extra assistance.
Did anything unexpected
happen?
Nothing major unexpected happened during
both lessons. The only minor thing that I
recall happening was a student rocking up
quite late to class. I went over to him to give
him a quick overview of what was
happening, and gave him all the worksheets
needed. One of his classmates was really
helpful and also helped him to catch up, and
this is something that I commended her for.
Did you provide a variety of
activities?
I did provide a variety of activities for the
students to undertake. I made sure that these
were interesting and appealing. I included
images in my presentation for my first
lesson, and this did catch the attention of the
students. I also made sure that the
worksheets I created were not full of the
same questions, but contained a variety of
different types of questions/tasks to
challenge and intrigue the students.
Were you satisfied with your
timing, particularly for the end of
the lesson?
I was satisfied with the timings for my
lessons. The first lesson finished with a
minute or two remaining, so I was very
pleased with that. However, the second
lesson went about ten minutes overtime. The
mentor teacher and the students were fine
with this, and it was important that I didnt
cut the lesson short. Otherwise, this may
have negatively impacted on the learning
process.
Did you feel you were able to
change things if needed?
Yes, I did. Though it turned out that I didnt
really have to change anything. I would put
this down to my detailed lesson planning.

Was your organisation of
materials and resources efficient
and effective?
Yes, my organisation of materials and
resources was both efficient and effective. I
obtained everything I needed a few days
before my lessons, so I was well prepared. I
even did all the photocopying I needed to do
Secondary Placement
well in advance, to save time and stress (that
is if anything went wrong). I also asked about
the facilities I would be provided with in the
classroom for my lessons, so I knew what I
had to work with. For instance, in the maths
classroom there was no computer or
projector so I had to make use of the
whiteboards and worksheets solely.
Did you plan how and when you
would distribute and collect
materials?
Yes, I did. This has been noted down in both
lesson plans. I distributed and collected the
materials in a particular way in order to
minimise disruptive classroom behaviour.
Were you aware of classroom
procedures and school
disciplinary policy? How much
did you know about your
students?
Yes, I was aware of the classroom procedures
and the schools disciplinary policy through
my mentor teacher and the handbook that I
was given to by the school at the beginning of
my prac. I had a few days to familiarise
myself with these procedures and policies,
before my class lessons. I didnt really know
that much about my students, since I only
had one 1-hour observation lesson a couple
of days before my lesson. However, I did get
a little insight into my students via my
mentor teacher.


Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom

How did you demonstrate to the
students that you valued them,
and enjoyed learning?
To demonstrate to the students that I valued
them, I listened to them, sympathised with
them, and showed that I cared about them. In
order to do the latter, I got to know them,
and helped them with things that they didnt
understand. Just having a down-to-earth
conversation with a student, I believe, shows
that I value and appreciate them. So this is
what I did, along with having a listening ear.
Which aspects of your teaching
style do you feel helped maintain
class attention?
The aspects of my teaching that I feel as
though that has helped maintain class
attention is that of using a variety of
activities, which are simulating and
interesting for the students. This then should
allow for the learning process to take place. I
also feel that altering the pitch and tone of
my voice has helped maintain class attention,
since using a monotone voice could easily
bore someone to death. I also believe that my
young age has played a role in this, since I
can relate to the students and vice versa, and
Secondary Placement
this allows for a positive relationship to
form. Therefore, the students are likely to
pay attention due to this positive
relationship.
Did the students know what was
expected of them?
Yes, the students knew what was expected of
them. During the lesson, I explained and
showed the class what they were required to
do. After this, if any students were still
unsure as to what they had to do, I would
kindly explain and show them again one on
one.
Were you able to redirect
energies of attention seeking
students? Did the students have
enough to do?
There was no need to redirect the energies of
attention seeking students, since there were
no students whom were actually attention
seeking.

Yes, the students did have enough to do. In
fact the students in the maths lesson didnt
complete every question in the worksheets,
so this was made as homework.


Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour

Were you aware of what was
happening in all parts of the
classroom? Did you know what
each student was doing?
I was aware of what was happening in all
parts of the classroom most of the time, due
to the small class numbers. However, when
my back was turned to the class or any
students, it was really difficult to be aware of
what they were doing. So when I was
walking from desk to desk, I took a mental
note of what each student was doing. Then
after a period of time, I would go around
again and see if the students have progressed
any further.
Did you take action when you
observed poor behaviour? Why?
Why not?
Yes, I did take action when I observed poor
behaviour. Though, there was very little poor
behaviour observed. So when I did observe
poor behaviour, I would say something along
the lines of: I dont like what you are doing!
What should you be doing? If the poor
behaviour continued, I would take action.
Such action includes moving the student to
another desk or even giving them rubbish
duty. If these actions didnt work, I could
have (but didnt) sent the student to another
class.
Did you use non-verbal cues? Yes, I made use of non-verbal cues quite
heavily. These cues include eye contact,
Secondary Placement
pause, proxemics, and gestures. Though,
these non-verbal cues must be reflected by
the associated verbal cues. Therefore, in the
case of poor behaviour, when using these
cues, the student should start to realise that
their current behaviour is not appropriate,
and this may move them to correct the
behaviour themselves.


Overall Comments
Classroom management must be thought of when planning for a lesson,
since the behaviour of the students can make or break a lesson
In my prac, the students were relatively well behaved and they did
respect my presence in their classroom
Developing positive teacher-student relationships is important one way
of doing this is by getting to know the students well
Some students have individually tailored behaviour management plans,
which all teachers must be familiar with