Obs school

Details of Observation

	Description What did you see (NO judgments)	Feelings Reactions and feelings (NO analysis)
	I saw students at groups in corners of the room, I saw students working on maths with the teacher and then spreading out for followup activities I saw many students working independently away from the teacher I saw lots of collaboration between students. I saw all classes doing maths during this block. I saw a teacher growling at a student for drawing on the furniture and threatening to send her to the principal.	I felt happy to be with students again I didn't like that everyone was doing maths at the same time I didn't like that each teacher had taken their class to a corner of the room. I didn't like their use of punitive punishment

Evaluation What was good/bad about the observation? (Value Judgments)

One of my values is for self-directed learning and I didn't see much of that going on. I saw a lot of teacher led learning, and then students following up with tasks. Another value is for authentic learning, where students are actually doing something with what they are learning. Again I didn't see this, I saw students doing maths tasks that were very traditional and didn't have much of a point to them. Students were not working around their passions, the learning was led by the teachers, who were completely structured around the curriculum and "moving through" the curriculum. I liked the way the students were allowed to collaborate with each other, and talk with each other. They seemed free to associate with people from other "classes or groups" in the big space.

General Conclusions Any general conclusions about the visit, for us as a team?

I think as a team it is always good to see the way not to do things in a school. I think the importance for us a team would be to reflect and talk about why this was not a good way to do things. I think that lots of people recognised that while we were there.

Specific Conclusions For yourself- what have you concluded about your own specific unique situation? What has made a difference for you? What might you do differently as a result? Where do you think your gaps still are? What do you think might be a useful follow up and why?

I think it has affirmed in me the need for authentic, independent, self-directed learning that is centered around students passions. It's time to break the model of school, and to reconstruct it into something that doesn't hold kids back.