OBSERVATIONS OF DIFFERENT TEACHERS FROM DIFFERENT SUBJECT AREAS

Year 7 Drama:
This teacher has been teaching this subject for so long that she no longer uses lesson plans, but
simply follows the activity progression that the unit has followed for the last few years. She
endeavours to build a rapport with students, but is a firm disciplinarian. She has no patience for
students who slack off for no reason, or willfully misbehave.
Year 7 Mathematics:
I observed this teacher teaching two different mathematics classes the same content. One class was
more advanced than the other and she easily altered her teaching of the content for the students
who were struggling to understand concepts. She frequently used visual aids to assist in students
understanding of the topics.
Year 7 Mathematics:
This teacher was able to command the room with a gentle and quiet firmness that was incredible to
watch. It was very effective in commanding the respect and attention of the students. He always
spoke in a clear, calm, soft but authoritative manner. He often demonstrated what the students had
to do, and while the students were then completing the task, he permitted them to talk quietly (as
long as they were working). To quieten student again, he would raise his hand to get students
attention. His instructions were very clear, and he walked around the classroom working with the
students to get the activity done. If students behaviour became less than satisfactory, he would
remind them of the class expectations, which worked to bring their behaviour up to an acceptable
standard again.
Year 8 Drama:
There were many behavioural issues in this class which made theoretical work unproductive and
practical work particularly arduous. Often the lesson content took a backseat to managing classroom
behaviour. This set of students were renowned for making teaching and learning difficult for other
teachers and students. The teacher tried to minimize these behaviours by rewarding the students
with games and practical work when they behaved well.
Year 8 Science:
This teacher was very strict with his classroom management (understandably so, given that they
often conducted experiments with chemicals). He would not allow students to talk to each other. All
questions and comments had to be directed at the teacher. He would get students attention by
either; rapping his knuckles on the desk, saying excuse me, or waiting for the students silence with a
stern facial expression. When students asked him a question, he would direct them to look up the
answer themselves, and then he would clarify it.
Year 9 History:
This teacher was big on making connections between different areas of history, and linking things
from other units and areas of study, rather than allowing the students to make these for themselves.
Her lessons were primarily focused on verbally delivering information, but provided a few graphic
images to aid students understanding. She often asked the students for feedback on the lesson and
asked how she could improve learning for them.
Year 9 Humanities:
This teacher was one that I particularly admired due to her easy rapport with the students, and in
turn the successful learning of the content being taught. She seemed to have an instinctual
understanding of what her students needed, which activities they would learn the best from, and
which areas of the content they would struggle with. It is clear that she spent a long time getting to
know her students and their personal learning preferences.
Year 10 Psychology:
Students spent a considerable amount of time working on activities drawn from the real-world (I. e.
Newspaper articles and practical experiments), then were explicitly told the area of the curriculum
that it applied to. The teachers method seemed to be to let the students casually approach the
work, and she was very flexible with deadlines as long as learning was taking place.
Year 11 Psychology:
The students in this class were not very interested in learning the content which resulted in several
behavioural management problems for the teacher. Consequently, the teacher was only able to
teach the basic information because much of the lessons time was spent on disciplining students
behaviour. This teacher liked to convey content to student via the chalk-and-talk method.
Year 12 Psychology:
This teacher often lectured with the aid of PowerPoint Presentations, and used notes and textbooks
to help teach the information. She was a big sharer of resources and often used other teachers
worksheets.
Year 12 Legal Studies:
This teacher had a very unique class of only twelve students who consistently applied themselves to
the concepts being learnt. The teacher met the students needs extremely well. From the beginning
of the school year, he began preparing his students from the end-of-year exams. He was determined
that students be respectful in every interaction that they had. His teaching seemed to centre on
students doing the reading and learning activities for homework, then going over the answers in
classes and clarifying students understanding of the legal concepts.