Formal Observation Notes:

1st lesson 2/5/20 [exponent rules]

Today’s lesson objective was to simplify expressions using basic exponent rules. The bell

rang for the transitioning of classes and the students began to file into the classroom and take

their seats. Once the bell rang a second time noting that all students should be in their new

classroom, immediately a warm-up was posted on the board. The projector was turned on

showing a quizziz assignment for the students to log on to. He informed the pupils to take out

their computers and complete the assignment online. He displayed the results and refreshed the

page to update the results as they students submitted their answers. During this task he

emphasized the importance of asking your partner for help or questions and not anyone in the

room. He said he specifically designed the new seats to pair students with each other who he

believed would provide effective help. Approximately 10 minutes passed before almost all

student completed the assignment. Once enough time passed, he asked all students to put away

their computers despite if they were officially done the quizziz practice or not. Mr. Hengy also

implemented a new system to reduce the amount of talking among students in the classroom. If

students talked while he was teaching, he would openly say that they got a point on their name. if

a student reached three points, then they would be penalized by spending their lunch in his room.

Next, he reviewed the homework, showing the answers and asking if any of the students

struggled with the problems so he could expand the solution. Then he expanded the lesson

further by providing various shortcuts and different ways to approach problems to obtain a

solution.
 2nd Lesson 3/12/20 [evaluate polynomials]

As the students filed into the classroom, they all sat into their prospective seats. On the

board he wrote to complete page 804 in the textbook without a calculator. He encouraged the

students to work alongside their partners and groups but to try and complete as much of the table

as possible. After some time had passed, Mr. Hengy posted the answer of the first few problems

on the board. Then the next answers were displayed as he went over the answers thoroughly. He

answered any questions the students had and ensured that before he moved on everyone had a

decent understanding of the problems. This was continued until the whole page was completed.

Following this, he filled out a sticky poster and placed it on the whiteboard. The poster

listed a variety of definitions for this new chapter and he went through each term giving his own

form of definition instead of using one through the book to put it in a simpler vernacular. He

specifically gave examples for each definition to help the students grasp the concept. He pulled

up a page on the projector consisting of notes for the students to work through alongside him

naming the variety of polynomials.

After these notes he passed out a piece to each of the students including many different

example problems. He went through each of the problems calling on different kids who actively

participated in answering the questions. The students quickly caught on to the concept and

moved quickly through the topic. Mr. Hengy passed out a second paper and worked through

more examples while students raised their hands to answer each of the questions. When one

student didn’t understand where the answer came from, Mr. Hengy called him up to explain it to

him on the board 1 on 1until he understood and then congratulated him afterwards. After the

lesson was completed, the students worked on their homework for the night with the remaining

class time.