Observing My Peers

Observing my peers teach their lessons has been very interesting for me. Since my group already taught, it has been relaxing to sit in the back of the room and observe. Since my professor decided to have the rest of the groups teach for three days rather than two, I have been extra observable. Since my group only had two days to teach, we felt very rushed. It was virtually impossible to fit all of our activities into two days of teaching. Since we struggled so much, our professor decided to change the rules for the rest of the class. It was beneficial for the rest, but not for us. If we had three days to teach, our lessons could have been implemented so much better. We had great ideas but time was our biggest issue. Once our teaching was over, a weight was lifted off of our shoulders. All we had to do next was observe our peers and critique them.

Again, observing my peers has been interesting. Even though every group and lesson is different, it is expected that each group that goes is better than the first. I honestly believe that my groups lessons were great and if we had more time, they could have gone a lot more smoother. But what I've been observing so far has been pretty good. Kristen, Angie and Cassandra were the next group to teach. Their direct instruction went well and it was full of great information. They incorporated a game called Teacher vs. Class which gave students the opportunity to get points if they were quiet and participating respectively to receive a prize at the end of the lesson. Many students seemed to be knowledgable about the Spanish and Aztecs. Some were also a little confused. I really enjoyed the teachers Inquiry lesson which was a scavenger hunt using QR Codes on ipads. Many students were engaged in this activity and knew exactly what to do. I liked how Kristen made sure that the students were staying on task by reminding them about their Teacher vs. Class game. Not only did the teachers activities enrich the students knowledge, they kept the students engaged at all times. Once their day for cooperative learning came along, the lesson didn't go as smooth as I thought it would. The teachers did a great job explaining on how they expect the students to work together in groups. They focused a lot of attention on what it means to work together and how to do it effectively, which is exactly whats PIGS is all about!!
The students were put into groups and had to complete a task together and present it to the class. One of the examples was creating a picture collage on the ipad about Francisco Pizarro. I knew what this task was only because I was told to help the students stay on task by my professor and one of the other teachers. I didn't mind doing this, but I had to pause my observation writing to help out another group. Even though it wasn't their fault that they only had three teachers in the group, they shouldn't have created four groups of students if they couldn't keep track of them. It shouldn't have been my job to help another group out just because they didn't prepare accordingly. Also, since my group only had two days to teach three lessons rather than three days, I felt as though the teachers should have been much more prepared and not worry about time management. They still missed a few things because they were rushing, yet my group had to combine two lessons into less than an hour of instruction. It was almost impossible but to teach Inquiry or Cooperative Learning in one hour is definitely doable. I don't mean to sound harsh but it is definitely frustrating to see what the rest of the groups have one extra day to teach. My group didn't get that opportunity so the bar is set pretty high for groups three and four. I think that group three did a great job, but could have paid attention to more details in their lessons in order to make their teaching close to perfect.