Learning from Mr. Ahern

I so much enjoyed observing Mr. Ahern’s class.  One thing that stood out to me was the way Mr. Ahern was able to gently guide students towards understanding a math concept without actually telling them how to do it: he facilitated students discovering it on their own.  It was amazing to watch.  One of the biggest “ah-ha” moments I had while watching was the way he used the students’ own interest and ideas to create math problems for his lesson.  It was so engaging! Almost all of the students in the class were raising their hands to participate, which meant a much higher likelihood of students understanding these new concepts.  Let me give you some examples:

• Purposing the lesson. Mr. Ahern was teaching a lesson on adding and subtracting negative numbers.  The first thing he did in the lesson was put up the Essential Question for the day and ask students to consider it.
  

Learning from Ms. Bailey

I had the opportunity to observe Ms. Bailey teach her beginner ELL course.  One thing that is immediately obvious as the students walk into her room is that they all light up.  It is clear that this is a classroom where students feel truly comfortable.  It is amazing to me how Ms. Bailey can get so many students from different backgrounds and language abilities to feel comfortable while also maintaining high academic standards.  Ms. Bailey is able to do something that I’ve always struggled with: help an ELL student to understand me without talking down to them or lowering my expectations.  I wanted to pay specific attention to how she did this in hopes of learning from her:

• Taking advantage of student interests. Ms. Bailey takes advantage of distractions and creates opportunities for her kids to learn.  At one point during class the big riding lawn mower started driving straight towards the wall of windows Ms. Bailey has in her classroom.  As junior high students do, the kids completely lost focus of the lesson because of this distraction.  
  

Learning from Mr. Mascal

There is something about sitting in Mr. Mascal’s classroom that makes everyone excited to quiet down and listen.  His presence in the classroom is warm and inviting while also being 100% down to business.  As I observed his class, I tried to key in on the strategies that make Mr. Mascal able to manage his classroom so effectively.  Here are some ideas:

• Calm & Friendly. Mr. Mascal’s tone stayed calm and friendly the entire class period.  Even when he was reprimanding a student he framed it as a favor or redirection: “Can I ask you a favor?  You don’t need your phones right now.  Could you please put it away?”