Instead of having Ms. Till observe a lesson that Ms. Loveland knows she can ace, she has asked the principal to critique this lesson about adding and subtracting fractions.
Schools will often use a small pool of supply staff and if you are being used regularly ask the head of department or continued professional development co-ordinator if they would be prepared to observe a lesson and then feedback tips on improvement.
For example, I have just spent the last hour observing a great physics lesson but there were plenty of other reasons why I could have spent that time at my desk.
Over a thirty year teaching career, the last ten as head, I have sat in numerous lessons where I have observed a good lesson taught by someone who would have struggled to do so had the pupils behaved as they would have behaved without an observer in the classroom.
I observed a media lesson last Wednesday.
The other day we observed a science lesson in which the students had to experiment and create fake blood – like they do in the movies.
Unlike the Integrated Diagnostic Scale which is for use by assessors who have observed a complete lesson, the Reflective Analytic Scales are a tool for self-assessment through answering 'can-do' descriptors immediately after a class.
The Synapsis Brazil process group observed as a lesson learned the fact that the process implementation aiming high maturity levels do not represent greater effort related to CMMI level 3 implementation.
Many skeptics, like we all can be, will argue how can you observe a 25 minute lesson and not make a snapshot judgement?
An accompanying teacher's guide to hands-on activities stresses inquiry-based lessons such as observing an earthworm, identifying its needs, and building an appropriate habitat in a terrarium made of a plastic soda bottle.
