First Rotation Assignment: Mentor Teacher/Students' Observation Template

The attached observation template is the first assignment I created for our middle school interns to complete in EDM 341: Rotation 2 before they taught in the classroom. The assignment prompted them to watch the engagement (or lack thereof) between their newly assigned mentor teacher and her/his students and the students and the mentor teacher during one lesson and draw some conclusions over a period of time. Since the interns were only in the field two days per week, I asked interns to observe four times (with the option of either observing four separate classes or one class four times) so they would get sufficient information with which to appraise their mentor teacher, as well as some of the students they would be teaching. It is my belief that this opening assignment was critical to our interns’ understanding of the ways in which (positive or negative) a middle school classroom functions day-to-day. Because they were not teaching but only observing, they had the luxury of removing themselves emotionally from the students and seeing them (and their actions and antics) at a distance (which, I feel, is an important introduction to school life for new teachers). They were also able to better understand what might be required of them from their mentor teacher.