On Teacher Observations...and the Aftermath

This morning I had my first evaluation as a Whole Brain Teacher. I teach three 90-minute classes of 5th grade science Generally, our principal will observe for about 30-40 minutes. Today, she observed me for 1 hour and 35 minutes...

My bilingual Science students did a great job in following the lesson and doing their part to learn the Water Cycle. They Class-Yes'd, Gestured, Teach-Okay'd, Mirrored, Mirror-and-Word'd with enthusiasm. Everything was going so well, until we got to Yes-No Way. At that point, it became very apparent that they did not understand condensation. So I jumped right back in and retaught, redemonstrated, regestured, re-everythinged...but, we still have work to do to master that pesky concept of "condensation".

I've learned that sometimes what my students simply need is time. Time to "live with" the information. Time for it to soak in and become part of them.

This evening I needed time, too. Time to decompress. Time to reinvigorate my teaching soul. So I wandered over to wholebrainteaching.com and watched tonight's webcast on Inference. Wow! I love the teaching template. I want to bring in my home room next week and practice on them!

I am:

• ready to go again. 
• back in the saddle again. 
• excited about teaching again. 

Thanks Whole Brain Teaching.