Some of us have been following the process of being observed that Danielle has been going through lately. Here’s an update:
- Last week, she had the pre-observation with her principal. It was probably not unlike many of us have experienced where the template the principal wants to follow is generic and applies to all subjects in the school but raises eyebrows when the observer doesn’t understand CI. With not enough time to completely re-educate the principal, the meeting feels awkward and sour because the principal, trained in the ways of observing traditional grammar classes by others in the department, thinks (and can’t hide during this first meeting) that you are a weirdo, which happened to Danielle, who has no support in her school.
- Her first observation earlier this week was with only six kids who were in the class live. The Zoom part of the class (16 students) didn’t happen for some reason during that observation. The vibe in that class was good, as Danielle went through the first four phases in the Star Sequence. Of course, the principal, trained in the way of bad vibes and condescension and ignorant of the method, kept her cards close to her vest in the way that these people often do when they know nothing about what they are seeing.
Here is part 3 of Danielle’s report:
I just had a zoom class with the entire Spanish 6 class. This is the same class that I did my observation with but only 6 of the girls. 22 all together. In my mind, my intuition tells me that it went amazing. I feel fantastic right now. I don’t know if they felt or feel the same. I had a plan — we were going to create another tableau. Our town meeting turned into the whole class because I felt like creating more of a community with them was worth it. It was natural and unforced. I was able to bring in the colors that we spoke about the other day-, cognates. I can probably fill the page with what we discussed. The thing is that they were communicating with me. I feel like sending a mass email to the parents to say what an extraordinary class I just had with their children. Most of them had their cameras on and I hope that the others will feel more comfortable next time to put their cameras on for the whole time.