This one of my favorite classes to observe. There was a brief introduction of student teachers to start. The teacher started with opening the discussion board with the following question – Recall one of the best learning experiences and what made it so good? (Subject/teacher/your friends). I think I will try to incorporate appreciative inquiry into each lesson – it provides students with something to be grateful for. I also noticed how the teacher had the question on a discussion board and shared it on the screen and went through the comments and “hearted” each reply. She also  asked students to elaborate on their responses and students were participating actively. This class was heavily engaged and I was picking up some great techniques from the teacher. She was extremely caring, gentle, super motivating, encouraging and used supportive language (awesome, amazing class, superstars). The teacher was high energy. I am beginning to realize how important energy levels and mood are and how easily your class can be impacted by these factors. The students then presented their portfolio projects for attending university. This was a portfolio that they could share with prospective universities they want to attend. The students were filled with hopes, aspirations, goals. It was a bit emotional for me and really highlighted why I want to teach and help others. The teacher tied the learning to the studen’ts livs and explained how their portfolios are a lifelong project. You can add, edit, evolve it. Keep building on it.

Teacher closed the activity with self evaluation – more like a reflection – through survey monkey – take a few minutes to reflect what you learned from this project, what was the most challenging part?, what did you learn about your self? What did you do differently? Rate your attitude and effort, why are you giving yourself that rating? I think survey monkey is an excellent tool to check in with students and assess learning.

The teacher offered a beautiful brief exit activity that summarized the student’s learning and what the students achieved through the activity. – autonomy, mastery, purpose, and destination. I love EXIT tickets – they’re so easy and engaging.

I learned that in MS teams you can do  attendance at the end by simply downloading the attendance list and it gives a report regarding who attended and for how long.

I had the opportunity to provide feed back and offer motivation – how cool? The students who received feedback from Lori and I were super inspired and thrilled.