Observation Sheets: High School Placement

1) Do you feel your questions were clearly structured and readily understood by
the students?
In the high school placement I do feel my questions were clearly structured and
understood by the students. As the students were much older they were able to
understand what I was asking and able to interpret their own answers quite quickly. As
I was in an environment that I was not comfortable in or did not have that much
knowledge of, most of the students were able to answer all of my questions as they
knew more than I did.

2) Did you use a variety of question types?
In the high school I tried to use a variety of question types. Once again, the main type of
question I used were recall questions as I was mostly trying to find out what the
students knew about their topics. Some other question types that I tried to use more in
the high school environment were analyse questions, comprehension questions and
application questions. I used these types of questions when directing them at the
students in order to test their knowledge but also so I was able to understand what they
were doing and why. It was much easier to use a variety of questions due to the age of
the students I was in the classes with compared to the year 4s in primary school.

3) What balances was there between the various questions types?
When directing questions towards students, it was very important that I used as many
as I could, which helped the information and answers link in order to gain more
information about a topic. The link between questions was an important balance that I
tried to be aware of when directing my questions.

4) Consider both why and when you made use of the different question types?
Usually I would begin by asking a simple recall question, just so I could gain an
understanding of what the students already know. The question and question types I
used had a large context base purpose behind them as I was trying to gain information
about their topics as well as see how much they know. I tried to make sure that I used a
number of questions and not just one so that I could engage with the students and learn
more about the high school environment.

5) Did you recognise any pattern in the distribution of your questions amongst
the students? Consider reasons for this pattern?
The pattern that I recognised when distributing questions was Bloom's Taxonomy.
When distributing my questions I usually followed this pattern even though I was not
aware of it half of the time. The pattern usually went, recall questions - comprehension
questions - application questions - analyse questions and so on. Reasons for this pattern
may be that each question allows for you to further display knowledge about a topic or
about information which the students have been taught.

6) How have you directed questions to the group?

When directing questions to the group I made sure that I was at the front but in the
middle. The students formed a semi circle around me so that all of them could see me.
When directing the questions I made sure I looked around the group and not just at one
person so I knew all students were paying attention and coming up with their own
answers.

7) Have you used wait time?

Like the primary school environment, after asking a question to the students I would
wait at least three seconds to give them time to answer. Unlike the primary school
though, most of the students were able to come up with an answer fairly quickly as they
had very good knowledge of their tasks and were able to eagerly display that.

8) Did you make eye contact with the group as you directed your questions?
Eye contact was a big thing that I tried to make sure I did when directing my questions. I
used eye contact almost the same as I did in the primary school environment. I would
not look at one person if I was directing the questions at the whole group and I would
not stare at people to make them uncomfortable or nervous. When asking the questions
I would make sure that I scanned the semi-circle at least once before receiving an
answer.

Reactions to student's responses:

9) How do you deal with correct responses? Do you qualify any praise given?

As the high school students were much older than my year 4s, praise wasn't needed as
much as primary school. As I was in a Design and Technology environment the students
in most of the classes were free to do what they wanted and continue on their projects,
meaning every student were up to different stages. This was very interesting as I was
able to walk around and observe, asking them questions about their projects and always
receiving different answers. There were no right or wrong answers to these so if I saw
that the students work/project was looking very good or they were working really hard
on it I would praise this in a more mature way. The high school students didn't need to
hear as much praise as primary school.

10) How do you deal with incorrect responses? How do you deal with students
who stumble and grope for an answer?

When a student couldn't answer a question, usually I couldn't either, as I had no
experience in the Design and Technology department. But, much like the primary school
I would begin by re-reading the question out loud to them so that they could think about
it clearly. I would wait for a response, if I was correct I would praise them, if it was
incorrect I would ask them to think about it again. If I was unable to help students with
questions as I didn't have enough knowledge I would go and grab the teacher.

11) Do you keep eye contact with the students until they have completed an
answer? Do you cut students off and go onto the next point before they have
finished responding?

When students were answering a question or thinking about their answers I did keep
eye contact with them or on the problem. This way the students knew that they had my
full attention and I would be able to assist them if needed. I never cut students off before
they had finished responding as I wanted them to be able to explain themselves and
their answers so that they knew why they got that result. I would always wait until the
student had finished before going onto the next point.

12) What use do you make of the students responses to develop the teaching
point? Have you redirected any questions in order to add to an initial response?

Often when the students answered a question it gave an opportunity to lead to other
questions and answers related to the teaching point which was very useful sometimes. I
don't think I had to redirect any questions in order to add to an initial response as the
students often answered straight to the point and didn't stray off.

13) Are you the only evaluator of the students answers?

In the environment in which I was placed in I did not want to have the responsibility of
being the only evaluator of the student's responses. If I was unsure of any questions or
answers in my lesson I asked the teacher who was standing near me during my
demonstrations in the lesson. So yes, I should have been the only evaluator but I did not
feel comfortable in the environment and I definitely didn't have enough confidence to
say if the answers were correct or not as the students knew more about woodwork then
I did.

14) Was your lesson plan effective for managing the class? e.g. How did the
students react to your lesson overall and to your planned activities?

Yes I feel that my lesson plan was extremely effective with managing my year 8 class.
The class was very quiet, respectful and didn't play up when I was talking. I think the
class were good for me as their teacher had set strict rules from the beginning so the
class were extremely behaved for him at all times. At the beginning of my lesson I
completed two demonstrations, one on drilling a hole to create the wheels for their
truck designs and one for gluing their trucks together. While I was doing these
demonstrations I was extremely nervous and I think the students knew this, they knew
that they knew more than I did and they were probably better at doing what I was doing
but they still watched on patiently and didn't mess around which I appreciated a lot.
After the demonstrations the students were able to go back to working on their truck
designs, continuing on with the parts they were up to. At this stage I was able to walk
around and observe, asking questions and helping students who needed help. Every
student got on with their work at this point and were very eager to complete their
projects which was great to see so yes, I think the students loved the lesson plan and
were very enthusiastic about the subject.

15) Did anything unexpected happen?

Yes something unexpected did happen. At the beginning of the lesson when I was trying
to demonstrate how to drill the wheels for the truck designs the machine wouldn't turn
on for about 5 minutes. In this time I started to stress out as I didn't know what to do
while the teacher was trying to fix it, so at this point I just tried to talk to the students,
explaining what was happening, going over safety rules etc.

16) Did you provide a variety of activities?

Yes I did provide a variety of activities. At the start of the lesson the students had to
watch a demonstration about what to do on their projects and after that they were
allowed to continue on with them. In a woodwork workshop there are many tools and
machines to keep the students occupied and there is always things for them to do.

17) Were you satisfied with your timing, particularly for the end of the lesson?

Yes I was satisfied with my timing as we started packing everything away 5 minutes
before the school bell. In this time we were able to pack up, clean the benches, the
students were able to get their bags all before the school bell worked. I was very pleased
with how smoothly it finished.

18) Did you feel you were able to change things if needed?

Well I nearly did have to change my demonstrations for my lesson due to the machine
not starting up. It took about five minutes and I was going to swap to the gluing
demonstration first instead of the drill demonstration but just before this the machine
turned on so I did not have to change around.

19) Was your organisation of materials and resources efficient and effective?
Yes my organisation was efficient and effective in order to allow my lesson to run
smoothly. I arranged to meet up with my teacher so that they could help me get out all
the materials and tools I needed so that I wasn't running around during the class trying
to get everything organised. This made it a lot easier and smoother and allowed me to
stay calm and not stress about things as I was very nervous about my lesson. The
students had all the materials they needed and there was glue available for those
students up to the gluing stage and also wood for those up to making the wheels.

20) Did you plan how and when you would distribute and collect materials?

No I did not plan how and when I would distribute materials as this was not needed in
the woodwork environment. The students had a big box for all of their projects so they
were able to get them out after the demonstrations and continue on with them. They
just continued using the materials that I used in my demonstrations depending on the
stages they were up to. The students were very familiar with their woodwork workshop
and knew what materials they needed to complete the stages they were up to, they were
very independent.

21) Were you aware of classroom procedures and school disciplinary policy? How
much did you know about your students?

As soon as I started observing the classrooms in the high school I picked up on the
school disciplinary policy straight away. Unlike the primary school, students didn't have
to be told off as much as in the Design and Technology environment, students were
allowed to walk around and talk to one another and continue on with their projects. The
major policy I saw were students going on contracts within the department, meaning if
they broke their contracts they were not allowed to continue that course, although I
never implemented this. By the time it came to my lesson I was familiar with the
students and understood how to talk to each of them, which was very helpful.

22) How did you demonstrate to the students that you valued them, and enjoyed
learning? E.g. tone of voice, facial expression, sense of humour, introduction to
students and topic.

As I was close to the age of the high school students I was able to relate to what they
were going through and knew exactly how to handle them. I had extremely relaxed body
language and was always smiling and friendly to all the students. I wanted to make sure
that I wasn't choosing favourites or picking some over the others. It was much easier to
incorporate sense of humour into the high school classrooms as I was close to their age
and was able to relate to them, while still making sure they were on task and doing what
they were supposed to be doing.

23) Which aspects of your teaching style do you feel helped you maintain class
attention? E.g. variety of activities, class or group discussion, pace of lesson,
interest at class level.

I think the fact that I had interest at class level helped to maintain class attention. As the
students were coming up to the final stages of the truck designs I think most of them
were eager to complete them so were really paying attention to what I was saying and
demonstrating and really took all the information in.

24) Did the students know what was expected of them?

Yes the students knew what was expected of them straight away as this wasn't a lesson
introducing a whole new topic, they were continuing on with a topic they had already
started so it was much easier. The students knew what they were doing and were happy
to get on with their tasks straight away.

25) Were you able to redirect energies of attention seeking students? Did the
students have enough to do?

I found myself having to do this much more in the high school, and found that the high
school students were more easily distracted than the primary school. Often I had to use
a lot of non-verbal cues such as movement towards the students and looking at their
work etc. The students all had plenty to do and the teacher had tasks set for students
who had completed the wooden truck designs - although none had finished those yet.

Dealing with minor misbehaviour:

26) Were you aware of what was happening in all parts of the classroom? Did you
know what each student was doing?

To be honest I don't think I did know what was happening in all parts of the
classroom/workshop. I made sure I constantly walked around where I could see all of
the students but as the woodwork workshop was so big and there were so many
different stages of the project going on I just tried my best to keep everyone on task. I
know for sure each student was working on their projects, I just didn't know which
student was up to which part as there was so much going on.

27) Did you take any action when you observed poor behaviour? Why? Why not?

Yes I did straight away, even though there wasn't really any poor behaviour during my
lesson. If I saw a student misbehaving while I was in the classrooms I would tell them
that it wasn't appropriate and get them back on task straight away, which worked most
of the time.

28) Did you use non-verbal cues? e.g. Contact, pause, gesture, movement toward
student/s concerned.

Lots of non-verbal cues were used while I was in the classrooms and I found it very
affective. If students were talking to loud or mucking around I would usually start with
movement towards them, followed by observing their projects or using a gesture such
as the 'sh' sound. These were very affective and the students would usually stop after
this. Unlike other classrooms where the students have to sit and work quietly, they are
allowed to walk around and talk amongst each other in the workshop, meaning I didn't
really need to tell them off for anything.

Schools as text - looking at the whole school:

29) Describe the school in terms of its demographics, appearance and resources
(be general here and do not name the school).

I was placed in a high school in the Rockingham area which was built and started only 8
years ago so it was fairly new. All of the buildings seemed so new and clean and it was
very easy to get lost there. There were over 1000 students at the high school ranging
from year 8 to year 12, and next year they would be taking year 7s as well. As the school
was new it had new, clean resources that were very easy to access. In the Design and
Technology department, all of the equipment was new and there was a lot of it, it was
huge compared to my high school Design and Technology department. The high school I
completed my placement at were renowned for their specialist football program, where
the students who were part of this had a different uniform and were easily identifiable.

30) What were the roles and responsibilities of the teaching staff you observed?

My mentor teacher was the head of Design and Technology and was very powerful in
the school environment. He had a lot of respect from the students and they all seemed to
get along with him very well. My mentor teacher taught upper school metal work, but he
allowed us to view other classes within the Design and Technology department so we
could see the other teachers as well. The role of the teachers were to teach the students
about Design and Technology tools and resources as well as social skills such as respect.

31) What did you observe non-teaching staff doing to support teaching and
learning in the school?

Non-teaching staff do a lot for the students in the high school environment ranging from
the library, the cleaners, the canteen ladies, all of the people in the office etc. I also had
to pleasure to meet the principal of the high school as my mentor teacher was giving us
a tour of the office. While in the office they talked about lots of school politics and many
plans for the schools future were arranged in the hallways - not joking.

Students:

32) You will have observed the diverse nature of your classes. How was this
diversity supported?

The high school had an extremely diverse range of students. There were many examples
of diversity in the classrooms ranging from cultures to disabilities. As I was in the
Design and Technology department there were not many girls, but in the classes they
were in they were accepted and treated the exact same as everyone else.

Function of schools:

33) Did you observe the connection of your schools with the broader community?
How did this happen?

One example of how the high school I was placed in connected to the wider community
was through their specialist football program. Through this students were able to
promote the sport for their community and lots of students from the wider community
went to the school to pursue this program. Purely in the Design and Technology
department the upper years were building go-karts which they were building to race
with other schools and in competitions around the community, which was great to see a
connection as my high school did the exact same thing.

34) What do you think the function of school is?

In primary school, the main function is to learn the basics of everything and gain an
understanding of self-identity. In high school this is built upon and students are pushed
to really define who they are as a person. In high school they are able to find the path
that they want to follow in their lives and are able to take on subjects that will help
them in the future with what they want to do and what skills they want to develop. High
school prepares students for life in the 'real world' and this is very evident. It not only
teaches students information about subjects, but social skills that they need to
understand in order to communicate with people in the community.