Erika Aller

Oak Park River Forest High School

Environmental Science AP
Ecosystem Diversity
November 13, 2015
98 min
Ms. McGuckin

THIRD CLASSROOM OBSERVATION: Managing a Classroom

On Friday, November 13, I observed Ms. McGuckins environmental science AP class at Oak
Park River Forest High School. I observed for two periods. The topic of the lesson was
ecosystem diversity.
Almost no time was spent on bookkeeping tasks. The students have assigned seats and the
teacher takes attendance by seeing which seats are empty. No students were absent in the first
period and 2 students were absent in the second period. The teacher distributed the note
taking sheet while talking about the video they were going to watch.
The teacher uses a weekly handout for assigning homework. The weekly handout outlines
what they are doing in class each day and what homework is due. The weekly handout is
given out each Monday. No homework was due on the day I observed. I discussed homework
with the teacher after the lesson and she said she doesnt really assign daily homework, she
assigns more in depth work and that they do not review it in class. She grades it and gives
comments and critiques and that students are free to discuss the homework with her at any
time.
The students were on-task for the entire lesson. I wasnt very surprised by this. This is an AP
level course at a suburban high school. Though, they were on task the excitement level was
low. On the day that I observed, the lesson consisted of a video (with a note taking sheet),

reading an excerpt from the book and discussing the reading. The students participated in all
aspects but they seemed pretty bored. But the boredom did not lead to disruption or students
getting off task.
The transition times were handled well by the teacher. She handed out the note taking sheets
while summarizing the upcoming video, she asked review questions while setting up the
video.
The classroom environment was very laid back and relaxed. The students seemed very
comfortable especially with asking questions and participating in discussion. The discussions
flowed freely but were courteous with minimal interruptions. The teacher was very good at
communicating with the students. She was very clear with her instructions and questions, the
students understood what she wanted from them.
Based on my observations I dont really know if the students were so well behaved because
of this teacher or because its a specific type of student in this class. The teacher didnt really
have any overt management techniques yet the students were very well behaved. I did not
observed a reprimand, a restatement of the rules, nothing. No students got out of their seats,
no students spoke out of turn. No bad behavior at all.
The one thing that I would use in my classroom would be the teachers pace. She kept up a
really good pace and each portion of the lesson flowed from one element to the next. The was
no downtime to speak of (except reading the textbook if you were a fast reader you would
be done with that passage pretty quickly).
The one thing I would change is that I dont think I would ever have students read from the
textbook as part of the lesson. I think that is the most boring thing that you could do. Have

the students read the textbook at home class time should be spent on clarifying and
expanding on the textbook in an engaging way.