Observation Day 1....

Today was my first day of observation at the Middle School. The following is what I observed:

Ms. H - Advanced Science 6th Grade
Technology:

• The first thing that I noticed was that the class was watching a video being projected onto the SmartBoard. The video was also being shown on the teacher's computer at the back of the class.

Activities:

• Do objects have heat? After the video the students did an activity to determine if objects have heat. Ms. H polled the students to determine how many thought that objects had heat. She then made each of the students objects. One student held a cardboard circle (energy) with words on both sides. The first "object" (student) handed the "energy" to the other "object". The students did this over and over again until they all understood the answer to the question.
  

General Observations:

• I came into the class with only 20 minutes left.
• The students started to talk during the second video, but Ms. H quickly put a stop to the talking.
• I find it extremely odd that there are not any bells to end the classes.
  

Ms. H - Advanced Science 6th Grade
Technology:

• When the next class came in, I noticed that Ms H had a PowerPoint projected onto the SmartBoard with a review of the previous day's lesson. The students came in, got their notebooks off the shelf, found their seats, and did the assignment. During this "bell work" Ms. H froze the projector so that she could return to her computer to find another file.
  
• Ms. H uses the SmartBoard to switch from the PowerPoint review to a movie.
  
• After the Brain Pop movie, she uses the SmarBoard to switch to a quiz.
  
• During the quiz, the students were able to interact with the SmartBoard by coming up to the board and selecting the correct answer.
• After the quiz, the class watches the video that I walked in on from the previous class. They watch two videos then
  

Ms. L - Advanced Language Arts 7th Grade
Technology:

• Ms. L has a "bell work" (quizlet) assignment projected onto the SmartBoard for the students when they first come in.
  
• After the bell work assignment the students do their independent reading. During this time media center students (students who are assigned this day as being able to go to the media center) leave. Other students (who are quizlet students) go to the back of the classroom and do quizlets on the computers.
  
• The quizlet students appear to be accessing the quizlet from the internet.
• After the independent reading the students take a quiz on a previous day's lesson.