Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Principal's Observation

Yesterday I announced to my class that we were going to have a special visitor today. My principal was going to do her yearly observation of me teaching a lesson. My class was excited because they love visitors. The plan was to do a mini-lesson on prefixes, suffixes and root words. Then move into work stations while my co-teacher and I did guided reading and writing.

Fast forward to today
7:40 Miss G. drives into the school parking on a dark, cold and drizzling morning. I can tell that all kids are going to be CRAZY today because of the weather. Not the greatest day for an observation but at least it's not raining. I'm also worried the principal will be a no show because she is not back in town.
8:15 Starts to pour outside. Aw crap, now the kids won't even get to go out to recess. Miss G. thinks that after lunch the kids are going to be crazy. I exchange worried glances with my co-teacher.
11:45 Two of my girls that go to another class for enrichment run in and shout: "MISS G. IT'S SNOWING!!!" All of my enrichment kids run to the one window in my class to see the snow. I'm thinking, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
12:35 Jen tells me that my co-teacher reminded my principal of the observation. (She had been out of town since Thursday.) She also asked if she was going to take into consideration the weather. Needless to say that the principal was a bit clueless.
1:20 Co-teacher arrives early to help prep the kids. We get them to clean their desks, pass out their work stations folder, and to continue writing in their writer's workshop notebook. I want the principal to see us transition into our lesson.
1:32 Principal walks in and the kids are excited. She says hello and the lesson and observation begins. Since yesterday I introduced prefixes and suffixes today's mini-lesson is a hands-on activity where the class gets up and puts together root word with a prefix or suffix that makes sense. My class rocks the activity.
1:45 Class breaks into their work stations. As soon as kids get situated co-teacher and I call our guided reading and writing groups. Principal circulates asking students about their work station. Principal watches co-teacher and I work our magic. After one group with us Principal asks me questions about my work stations. She is impressed with my students' writing and asks for additional copies that I hadn't enclosed in her packet.
2:15 Principal leaves and my class, co-teacher and I exhale. Not at all bad. I thank my students for the awesome lesson.

I have to say that I was very pleased with the way my observation went. Even though the weather was bad and the day was unusual my class was wonderful. They really pulled through for me. I guess that's what happens when you have the perfect class. So thanks to all of you that wished me luck. It was a great day.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm glad everything went well. My principal has been doing walk-throughs this last week, and surprisingly my kids were well behaved when he came in. I'm not being appraised this year, so at least I don't have that stress to deal with.