Learning walks are great way for teachers to see what is happening on other classrooms. When I went on learning walks in the past, or had teachers come to my room to observe, I usually felt that an evaluation was happening. I felt I needed to look at what was happening in the film and make a judgement call about what I liked and wanted to use or what was not so good and what I didn't or would never use.
But today I learned something different. I learned that it was not about evaluating at all. It was not even about the teacher. It was about how the students were engaged and what the teacher dos in their classroom to get them engaged. I heard what the teacher said, I saw what the teacher did, and I watched the students. I saw them work. I saw some off task. I saw them think and discuss. I saw what each teacher did to get them involved. I learned some things that will help me be a better teacher. I heard some questions that the teachers would say and thought about how I could use similar questions.
I have also been learning about how to script questions and what teachers and students are saying in the class. Scripting gives the teacher an idea of how their lesson is going as well as how deep the questions are requiring the students to go in the information.
When we met back as a group we used a set of guidelines to guide our discussion. Nothing was to be said about the teacher that was disparaging or bad about what happened. We discussed what went well in the class. We found amazing things our teachers are doing and saw engagement of students through different activities. Many of which I will use in my classroom.
After our discussion I had the opportunity to meet with a couple teachers that were being observed and discuss how they felt about the lesson. It was a learning experience having them give me their insight into their lesson and thoughts while they were teaching. It can be unnerving having 5-6 teachers in your room while teaching a lesson. Hearing them reflect on the lesson and how they could do better and what they needed to work on helped me understand that even the best teachers feel they can improve.
Learning walks have been an interesting parting my teaching, but I am only now seeing how it benefits me as well as the teacher I am watching. Thank you to all those that let me observe and learn.
