Day 3: Observation Area for Improvement

When someone comes to my room to observe, I want them to walk away knowing that my students were doing rigorous work, thinking deeply about material in such a way as to make it their own, and communicating ideas comfortably with their classmates. I am working this year to increase the frequency and depth of my student-centered activities -- trying to stay away from lecture/notes in exchange for exploration in small groups/partners and structured reflection/processing of these explorations.
As I write this, it occurs to me that an observer will really need to be up and moving around the room to appreciate a truly student-centered lesson. In addition to developing and implementing the exploration lesson, I will need to invite observers to move around the room and talk to students about their work. I have not typically done this. Usually I take the position that I should pretend that the observer is not there.
I have a lot of growing to do in this area. With certain topics in math it is certainly easier to give notes and work practice problems. I have always done student exploration lessons but they have been less frequent than the lectures. I would like to flip this -- to have exploration and student discussion be the norm and lectures/notes be rare. It takes a different kind of preparation, and a lot more anticipation of student response. Yet already, even in these barely three weeks of school, I can see that the exploratory work we are doing, the modeling, the partner work, is allowing me to move around the room even more, to offer more one-on-one help, and to develop a better understanding of where each of my students are. What I want to improve on is my ability to anticipate student road blocks or speed bumps in these types of lessons and to be more prepared at offering the different supports they may need to move through the exploration.
I think it will also be helpful to get students used to talking to others, from outside the classroom, about the work they are doing. I can provide opportunities for this by inviting various faculty/staff into my room to see what we are doing and asking them to walk around and ask questions. Providing additional structured opportunities for students to teach other students will be helpful for them as well. I love the idea that Alan November shared at ISTE about the math teacher (sorry I do not remember his name!) who has his students create instructional videos that are added to a digital/online library that is viewed by tens of thousands of people. This is definitely something that is in my plans for the year, especially once our chromebooks arrive!