Getting a Glimpse of the World of Teaching: Conducting a Classroom Observation

What's up, Hivers? It's me, makiyumee! Today, I am going to share to you my experience as a first-time observer in conducting a classroom observation. This was when I was still a third year college student, so I hope you'll stick with me until the end of this blog and with that, let's start!

Third year, first semester. That was when me and my classmates started planning on when to start our classroom observation and where or what school should be we choose to perform our observation. My classmates were excited, and some were also nervous. It was our first time after all and we, the third-year students, are required to do this task because it is part of our course and our learnings as future educators.

As a student taking up an Education course, I can describe classroom observation as scrutinizing the teacher's ways of organizing a classroom and the students, how the students behave or react towards the discussion and their teacher and how the teacher and the student learn from each other.

After days of discussing where and when should we start our class observation, my classmates finally arrived at conclusion. We all decided to execute our observations at Medellin National High School which was just very near in our campus for the course was our first subject in the morning and we had another class after the observations. It saves a lot of time and money because we didn't have to pay for transportation fees during the making of the task.

On our first day, we were given guides per episodes by our instructor. These guides contained things on what we should include and not do during our observation. There were instructions and interview questions for both the student and the teacher. Though there are also episodes where the contents should solely focus on the teacher or the student. Sometimes, even the parents or the guardian of the student are the focus of the guides.

Once all of us had prepared our guides, we all went to the Principal's Office of the school to ask permission and to also let the principal know that we will be starting our observation. When the principal gave as the green light, we all went to our designated groups and classrooms. My first class to observe was a Grade 8 class, and my first impression was that the students were very energetic and chaotic.

Their teacher that time wasn't inside the classroom yet and we had to wait outside but the view from where I was standing gave me a wide view of the classroom. The chairs and the tables were a mess, there were students playing and running around the classroom, there were also some who were busy doing their morning classroom chores.

Watching the Grade 8 students that were so full of energy early in the morning made ask myself, "Where did all their energy come from? I'm just standing here but I already feel tired while these kids were running around like wild boars." I found myself shaking my head as I watched the Grade 8 students as I remembered that I was once a Grade 8 student like them, but I was not as energetic as them.

When one of the students told us that their teacher for their first subject was absent, we thanked everyone before leaving. Scenarios like this could happen so we just understood the situation and walked around the campus to find a teacher who was willing to be observed. There was this one teacher that I approached and asked if it was okay for her that we would observe her class but before I could finish my sentence, she turned me down in a flash and her booming voice that was full of irritation made me flinch on my spot. Clearly her morning wasn't good and so I didn't say anything and just took my exit.

My group and I continued to roam around the campus of Medellin National High School as we searched for another teacher to accept us. Soon, we found one and it was in senior high. I observed the senior students from a distance and I can really tell the difference between a junior high student and a senior high school student. Those kids I met from the Grade 8 class still looked like kids from elementary while the students in senior high were really looking like they were already prepared to enter college.

We thanked the teacher before we did our class observation. I was actually surprised when one of the students called me, "Ma'am". I was just a student just like him, but he still called me like I was already a teacher and so I told the student that calling me 'Ate' would be fine but he still insisted to call me—not just me, but my groupmates also to call us 'Ma'am' and 'Sir'.

There was something about the way being called like that made me feel warm inside my chest, like my heart was swelling and touched by his words. To be honest, teaching wasn't really my first choice when it comes to my chosen profession but in that certain moment, I realized that maybe I could give teaching a chance and maybe I will learn to love teaching too.

While their teacher was discussing in front, me and my groupmates were busy writing down what we had observed and what our responses to the guide questions were. As we did that, my thoughts still lingered to that certain student and so we decided to interview that student after their class. When their class finally ended and we did the interview, I was touched when the student answered us that it was their teachers who told them to treat students like us who are conducting a classroom observation to be called 'Ma'am' or 'Sir' to respect us and to practice also.

To be honest, this experience actually helped me a lot in my journey as future educator. It taught me a lot of lessons that cannot be learned through other ways. I was actually glad that I got to experience this kind of task in school because without it, maybe I wouldn’t realize that being a teacher is would a hard but a very satisfying job.

After we were done with our classroom observation, we did some checking on our answers for we might have skipped on some parts and after that, we ended our observations for the day by taking our snacks at the school canteen. Nothing beats food after a tiring morning after all.

That would be all for today, I hope you enjoyed reading my experience in conducting a classroom observation. See you all on my next blog, bye!