Classrooms United

Under watchful eyes, we form a united front.

I remember reading "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt over the summer, getting myself pumped for my upcoming job (ironically, I didn't like the book, but whatever). There was one part where he talks about how, when an administrator walks in, the classroom dynamic instantly changes, and there's this unity between the students and teachers that forms for as long as admin stays. Students aren't dumb - they know that when admin walks in, teachers are being evaluated. Thus, it's a test of how much they like you; if they go silent and do everything you say, you're liked and respected. If they run amok, they're trying to screw you over and make you look bad.

One day I was in grade 10 science, ready to throw up an overhead on naming polyatomic compounds. I reviewed a bit on the criss-cross rule of coming up with chemical formulas, and how to name ionic compounds. As soon as I threw up the overhead, a student said "Sir, someone's at the door."

I opened, and in walks the principal. She had spoken before how she likes to randomly walk into classrooms just to see what's going on, and to not acknowledge her presence at all.

"Hi." I said.

"Hi." was the response, and she quietly took a seat by the right side of the class.

As I walked back to the front, I saw every student looking at me with a worried look on his/her face. Hard to describe, but it looked like eyes asking "What do we do???"

"OK, so continue copying the overheads and stop when you reach this point. Once you're done, think about how it links back to ionic compounds, and then we'll discuss it as a class." As I said it, I shot them all a look that said "Stay calm, we'll be alright." And we were; she left after 10 minutes.

As soon as she did, I literally saw all of them deflate. "Sir what was that about?" "Nothing, she just wanted to see our class, that's all." "Sir, are you in trouble?" "No Sara, I don't think so." Of course, I wanted to know what she thought.

After school I walked into her office and asked for her opinion. "Oh, it was good; I had been watching for about 10 seconds before you opened the door - you had complete class control, everyone was focused and engaged. And they clearly like and respect you. But I do have some suggestions for improvement." and she broke down how I need to improve my questioning abilities. I put people on the spot, and she went into great detail about how there's no safety in failing (i.e. people are set up to possibly feel humiliated if they get the question wrong). Thus, the only people who will put up their hands are those who are extremely confident. She gave me suggestions on how to improve that and get more people willing to put up their hands. I tried it, and it's worked, though I don't use it enough.

A couple of days ago, both VP's walked into my first period class (grade 12 advanced functions) and gave a little walk around. I wasn't teaching; I was merely walking around keeping students on task and helping them out, as I had given them an assignment to help them independently form the concepts of graph transformations for trig functions.

They left after 5 minutes. Same results - the classroom went quieter, people who were in and out of focus stayed on task - though there was some chatter, but focused chatter, because I had encouraged them to help each other out.

Yesterday during lunch, I was on my way to the office to check my mailbox for my attendance updates for last two periods, and the principal and two VP's motioned me over. "Oh shit...." I thought.

"Y'ello???"

"Hi, we have an opportunity for you."

"That sounds good."

"We'd like to see your first period class. It'd be just me (principal) along with Mike (department head). We want to see how your teaching has come along, and since Mike's experienced, we want his opinion on what you're doing right, and how you could improve."

"Sure, I'm in!"

Although I like professional feedback and constructive criticism, this does worry me somewhat. With the two VP's having walked into the same classroom a day earlier, I'm wondering if they saw something they didn't like. Am I being watched? Mike spoke to me during lunch and asked me about it. He said "I don't know, she said she wants my opinion on what makes a good math class. I said 'OK, whose class should we see?' and she said 'What about one of Andrew's classes?' 'Sure OK.'" I get the sense that this was just a way of getting him to watch a class of mine to evaluate me. Is there a possibility that they're looking into hiring me full-time, and this is a test of some sort? Who the heck knows? All I know are a couple of things:

1) It's happening sometime next week, and

2) Whatever happens, I'll be alright - myself and thirty-four hormonally-charged teenagers will form a united front.