Don’t Expect To Learn Communication From Her

While I was in college to earn my bachelor’s in Elementary Education, we went into the local school to get experience in a classroom the semester before we actually started Student Teaching. During that semester, our professors would come in and observe us and give feedback. We had to teach a lesson on our own when they observed.

During my first observation, the professor sat in the back looking extremely angry and eventually pulled one of the kids from my lesson and worked one on one with him without saying anything to me. Throughout the lesson, I got more and more nervous trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and analyzing every little word and movement I made. By the end, I was a nervous wreck and was sure I had utterly failed the observation.

Two days later, we met to go over my observation together, and beforehand, I prepared myself for the worst. I went into my professor’s office and sat down.

Professor: “First off, I want to say you did an excellent job and it’s obvious you really care about the students.”

I was completely confused and sat through the rest of our meeting in a daze. I kept trying to match all the positive comments she was giving me with her body language and attitude during my lesson and couldn’t figure it out.

That observation taught me that when I’m being observed I should just continue my lessons like the person isn’t there and not look at them. I’ve never had a bad observation, but that professor made me feel like a complete failure before I had even started. All I can think is that I’m so grateful she was never my teacher in elementary school.