Observations of Mr. R's classroom

HOW DO THE STUDENTS ACT UPON ENTERING THE CLASS? HOW DOES THE TEACHER ACT? 

 The students walk into the room quietly, find their seat and get to work right away. Mr. R doesn't greet the students, he just speaks about what is on the board on days that he chooses to present extra information. It is very quiet at the beginning of class, but generally gets louder and louder as class progresses!

HOW DOES THE TEACHER GET THEIR ATTENTION TO BEGIN CLASS? IS THERE A PROCEDURE FOR LISTENING?

There is no procedure for listening, rather when Mr. R begins to speak, he expects them to be quiet. If they are not quiet, he will just pause until the students stop talking or until the rest of the class can hear their conversation. Mr. R will just begin speaking, with no "hello" or "excuse me" and so on.

COMMENT ON THE TEACHER’S INSTRUCTION (HOW HE/SHE BEGINS CLASS, DEMONSTRATIONS OF TECHNIQUES, INCORPORATION OF TECHNOLOGY, SENSE OF HUMOR).

Mr. R does a great job using the smart board for presentations of new projects. He is very dry in his sense of humor and often speaks in a similar tone. He does a great job applying real world situations to his teaching techniques and makes sure to give the students ample chances to answer questions and understand the project. He doesn't give a lot of demonstrations, rather he tells them and shows them what other students have done (via student examples) and allows the students to experiment and ask for help. He will give a demonstration for completely new techniques in beginning classes, but allows the advanced students to recall the processes from previous projects.

HOW DO YOU SEE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEING HANDLED? ARE ANY STUDENTS BEING OFF TASK OR DISRESPECTFUL- HOW DOES THE TEACHER HANDLE THIS? IS THERE A SYSTEM OF DISCIPLINE THAT THE SCHOOL USES?

Mr. R does a great job keeping his students on task. The students understand that if he is walking around behind them or at their table, they should be on task. Generally, the students are always working on something in art class because they want to be. He doesn't have many issues of students doing nothing. Only a few students during my observation didn't do much art making in the classroom. Instead, they spent time on sketchbooks and preferred to work at home. I never saw any of their artwork that they worked on at home, but Mr. R says they often turn in the assignments late.

ARE THERE RULES POSTED? WHAT ARE THEY? 

There are no rules posted in the classroom, however, the students have procedures they follow and have had instilled all semester. Because I observed toward the end of the year, if these were posted, they are not posted now.  The students must be quiet, respectful, and must participate in discussions, clean up and so on. No electronics or music, and may not swear or use profanity in any way. The students did a generally good job at following the rules in the classroom. The most behavioral issues happen in resource time when they feel like they have more freedom.

HOW DOES THE TEACHER ADDRESS SAFETY ISSUES? 

Mr. R ALWAYS makes sure to tell his students about every safety issue. He always presents the lesson and safety issues right away as well as reminds the students about the safety issues in everything they do. He has also taken class periods at the beginning of the year to go over a tour of the room as well.

HOW DOES THE TEACHER HANDLE: BATHROOM BREAKS/LOCKER/DRINKS? RADIO/IPODS? TELEPHONE? USE OF MATERIALS? BORROWING MATERIALS OVERNIGHT? CLEANING UP? 

Mr. R signs all passes for bathroom breaks at the beginning of class and expects them back in a timely manner. The students have a passbook to use, so he allows passes as long as they have room in the pass book. The students bring food into the room, which is often at the beginning of the day which he allows for breakfast purposes. They must throw it away when the class starts and may not work while there is food on the table.  When students borrow materials, they must write their name and what they borrowed on the board for everyone to see. He allows students to use their cell phones for emergencies or to get information from parents an so on with his permission and approval. (This doesn't happen very often but Mr. R is pretty good about situations like this). As I have stated in many blog posts, he has great cleanup processes where each student has a daily routine, and a weekly job to put away carts, supplies and so on. All of the students are very good at following these procedures.

DOES THE TEACHER USE A LESSON PLAN, CURRICULUM MAP, OR A CALENDAR TO PLAN UNITS? DOES HE/SHE HAVE A WRITTEN CURRICULUM? (can you see it?) WHAT DOES THE PLAN INCLUDE? 

Mr. R doesn't sure lesson plans, but he does utilize curriculum maps and previous lessons in his career for reference. I didn't ever see his curriculum maps, but he mentioned that he is behind in his planning for the school's requirements, but often gets a lot of room to wiggle from his principal. For not using plans or written tools, he does a great job keeping his room organized.