Last week I had the opportunity to explore the rest of the Ag department at my cooperating center by sitting in on classes and observing how other teachers teach. There is one other teacher in my school's Ag department and I am frequently talking and interacting with her; however, I have never seen her teach a class. Therefore I decided to take this opportunity to observe her teaching style and technique in her Animal Science class.
This Ag teacher primarily focuses on production agriculture including plant and animal science, where as my cooperating teacher's focus is on agricultural mechanics. There are many different teaching techniques that can be utilized for each specialty area. After observing the other Ag teacher I was able to better make these comparisons and effectively observe different teaching styles.
I observed Ms. D's Animal Science class for this assignment. In the lesson the students were learning about Beef Quality Assurance (BQA). They had just finished a major project in which they had to create a pamphlet about one subject in beef production. Students had the opportunity to share their presentations with the class. As students presented their presentations the other students were expected to listen with respect. I really liked that the teacher allowed time for students to share their creations. Often times teachers collect student projects without allowing students to "show what they know." It also allowed the other students to gather information from their peer's presentations. As a result I also believe this technique builds students presentational and listening skills. It appeared that students were interested in this portion of the lesson. During presentations, the teacher roamed around the room to ensure all students were listening and taking notes on the presentation as well. I think this classroom management technique is also important in order to keep students on task.
The other aspect that I liked in this lesson is that the teacher only had two students present their projects and then moved on to other informational activities. Often times during presentations students share one after another and by the end of class students are tired of hearing the same format of information being said. By dividing presentations into chunks, students were more engaged because they had more varied instruction. After the two presentations, the teacher had a mini lecture and then a collaborative group assignment. These techniques engaged the students more in the lesson.
I also observed that the teacher's clarity helped students engage more in the content of the lesson. The teacher seemed knowledgeable in the content and was therefore able to provide good content knowledge. I thought she did a great job in providing clarity when informing the class on a topic. She also gave good and clear directions. Towards the end of the lesson the teacher divided the students into 4 groups. Each group was responsible to answer a specific question by researching the topic. I felt the teacher gave adequate instructions that allowed students understand their specific task and complete it with ease. These aspects are important for students to be able to complete a task successfully.
Overall, I enjoyed observing this lesson. It allowed me to observe teacher efficacy from a different point of view. During previous observations, my primary focus has often been on students. This gave me the opportunity to primarily focus on the teacher and lesson and then observe the response of the students. I also appreciated being able to observe the other Ag teacher in the same department. It gave an opportunity to compare different teaching styles and techniques utilized in different agricultural subjects. For example, in Ag mechanics courses there are many demonstrations utilized to teach a specific task. In this animal science lesson, there was research and projects utilized. Both of these techniques could be used in either class; however, it was interesting to realize how they can be used in different ways. I appreciated the time I had to observe this lesson and feel that it has helped me realize teaching strategies that I might also be able to implement into my own classroom,
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