Sarah- CO1

I just attended my first classroom observation, and I am so ready to pack my bags and head to Timbuktu, Bahrain, or anywhere else with a chalkboard and students. I observed Ryan's group 3 speaking class, and it looked like a blast. I find myself again questioning my deposit I just put down for grad school. I do enjoy my tutoring sessions, and have enjoyed getting to know my tutee, but something about the classroom experience brings it all home. These students were for the most part very good English speakers and were learning to give presentations. I was surprised how much their class looked like my own college level speech classes. I was also able to see some realistic classroom confusion. In the videos that have been posted so far, everyone was so quiet and behaved. In class today, I really felt like the students were all friends. There were jokes made and a lot of good interaction between the teacher and his students. I could see that it was one of the students' more fun classes. (Plus, Tayana informed me that it was a fun class ahead of time!) I imagine this results in a greater desire for success in their studies, and really helps the students to become engaged in their learning.

When he first started the class, Ryan clarified that I was there to watch him teach, and not to judge their speaking and told them they could relax about that. Though I wouldn't have thought to introduce a guest that way, I can see how smart this was, and how nervous the students could have been had they not known what I was doing there. I also noticed almost immediately that he spoke very clearly, moreso than normal, even making sure to pronounce those silenT t's that we naTives slide over so often... ofTen. He was also very animated throughout the lesson, and at some points, he almost seemed like he was speaking to children. I would be concerned about seeming condescending, or underestimating them, but it seemed to work well.

When explaining attention grabbers, he literally yelled the sentence from the text book at them, which was in all caps. He then asked if he had gotten their attention. This demonstration was funny and definitely got their attention! Another thing that seemed effective was how he introduced the topic of presentations. He had already given his own example presentation and used it as a reference. He also stopped reading to talk about WHY eye contact is important,  making a list on the board. This was extremely relevant to how they need to communicate in everyday speech as well.

There were also some things that maybe could have been done differently. The first being the teacher' handwriting. He stood to the side so they could see as he wrote, which is great, but it was very slanted and was written in casual, quick half cursive. This may have been hard to read, as I even had a hard time reading it. Also, he gave time limits for the group activities but at the end, when his watch beeped, he said, "OK time's up." and kind of made them stop talking. Maybe instead of giving 7 minutes, he could give 6 and tell them, "OK finish up your thoughts, and then time's up." Because I noticed a lot of students who were caught mid-thought and had to stop.

Overall it was a great experience!