Field Observation Etiquette Be sure to be on time School principals secretaries and teachers have a lot to do and we don t want to abuse their hospitality by creating extra work At least for the first week that each group A B C goes to a new school wait until most or all of your colleagues are present and go in together When you enter a school building always go directly to the office and sign in using that building s procedures Typically this will include your wearing an identification badge before you go to your classroom Not all schools have a badge type system Don t forget to sign out when you leave the school as well Remember you will be observing in trios at each site In the Fall quarter you will visit each site 3 times Lincoln Elementary School Centralia Middle School and Foss High School Your observation period will be a half day beginning at the start of your teacher s day and ending at 11am at Centralia and Foss and 11 30 at Lincoln You will need to take the time at the end of your morning to complete your observation reflections in your journal Do not sit next to fellow MIT students in the classroom If you are able sit in different parts of the room with different views of the classroom If it ever seems possible try to sit at the front of the room sometimes so that you can see students faces In order to explain your presence in the classroom ask the teacher to introduce you to the students in the class Let them know that you are also students who are learning about teaching Also let the teacher know what kinds of things you will be observing each day Do not initiate conversation with the children nor interfere as they do their work If the children engage you be polite but not engaging If you avoid most individual eye contact scan the room as you observe and take notes the students probably will ignore you after they get used to your being there Remember this quarter your task is to focus on observing and taking notes You may see things in the classroom that you don t agree with These observations will give you your first chance to control your body language your non verbal responses If you see something you are uncomfortable with describe it in your journal and don t discuss it with anyone but the MIT faculty Remember you are a guest not a classroom parent nor a paid evaluator You ll notice in the weekly guidelines questions to ask the teacher Check in with the teacher for a convenient time to pose these questions and talk for about 5 minutes At the end of each observation session plan to meet with your observation partners for 20 to 30 minutes Go out of the school and find a spot to have a cup Field Observation Guide Fall07 1 of coffee and debrief what you each saw and what questions you may have Note alternate interpretations your partners bring to the same situation For example maybe I thought the teacher was angry and aggressive in giving directions my observation partner may have interpreted that same interaction as the teacher being clear and direct After each observation and reflection write down a question or two about teaching learning and schooling that arises from your observation We will share these during computer lab time At the end of your 3 weeks at one school be sure to let the teacher know how much your appreciated your opportunity to observe A note or card is always appropriate If you can think of one or two things that you learned or thought were particularly good let the teacher know It is important to appreciate that these teachers are being generous to let us come in and observe It is easy for outsiders and people new to the profession to be highly critical of what is going on in the classroom While we want you to reflect deeply on the relationship between teaching learning and schooling it is not appropriate to be negatively critical of the teachers we visit We don t know their circumstances and teaching is a very complex profession You are bound by confidentiality and must not discuss anything you hear or see in the classroom with people outside the program Do not have conversations with your peers in public places where you may be overheard You never know if the teacher s best friend or the parent of a child is sitting near you Here s to a great experience Field Observation Guide Fall07 2 Fall Classroom Observation Guide MIT 2007 2009 These formal classroom observation tasks will help you to focus directly on the classroom environment which includes the physical arrangement and teacher student interactions Rather than engaging in teaching or tutoring experiences which may limit focused observation these tasks promote very centered looking listening and reflecting experiences Record your observations in a journal devoted exclusively to this assignment Observation journals contribute to the structure and content of the Thursday technology sessions and Friday observation discussions You will be using the observation guidelines below on Thursday mornings at each of the three school sites elementary middle school and high school You may observe and record events in addition to those listed below but this format will assure that you have observations that can be compared with those of your colleagues and we can learn from each others experiences in a thoughtful way Be sure to leave enough pages inbetween each observation for your regularly written reflections and for your response to the reflections of others in your seminar A central goal for your observations is learning the differences among descriptions interpretations and evaluations Further we want you to become aware of your own interpretations and evaluations and those that are informed by the research literature and our MIT community Interrupt your journal descriptions at any time with an asterisk or some such sign and write down at once anything to which you strongly react it may make you feel uncomfortable surprised alarmed shocked delighted sad happy These are important reactions because they will contain messages about your own perceptions It is important to go back to your notes and reflect what you were responding to and why We will collect your journals on Fridays WEEK ONE AT EACH OBSERVATION SITE Classroom Context Record the following information for each classroom you visit in your journal School setting urban rural suburban Grade level single grade multi grade classroom Number of students and number of teachers Profile of students boys girls race ethnic profile of students best
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