Post Conference

1. Post Conference Joey Briggs, NELA III

2. Background Information • Spanish I Classroom (1st Period) • 30 students • Veteran Teacher (20+ years) • 20 min observation • Teacher does not always play nice! Did not want to be videoed. 

3. Observation Day • Students were learning new vocabulary words. • Teacher was telling the students the words and student were then repeating the words back to the teacher. • Most of the students were engaged, however 6 students were not engaged at all. • Stand and Deliver lesson

4. Post Observation • What do you think went well in the lesson? • I think the lesson went pretty well, the students are having a hard time learning and speaking the words. • Did the lesson go as expected? Were there any surprises? • You only saw part of the lesson, but I think the lesson went as planned. I wish the students were more motivated to learn Spanish.

5. Post Observation (continued) • What did you notice in student work or in other data that let you know that students met the learning objective(s)? • I give weekly quizzes and for the most part students are doing okay. I have the students track their own data and I have students come back during lunch and afterschool that are struggling. I just don’t have time to reteach the objectives during the day. Most of my students don’t want to be in here anyway, they just have to take it because they need to years of foreign language and they say French is to hard!

6. Post Observation (continued) • What would you like to work on as you continue to improve your practice? • I think that students should not have 1st period Spanish. They are not even awake during 1st period. • There is a difference between my 1st period class compared to my 2nd and 4th period classes. Next year I want 1st period planning! You need to work on that for me!! • My kids in 1st period never do their homework and I have a major problem with that Mr. Briggs. • The kids are not motivated! I do not know how to get them motivated. (Here is were the tide turned)

7. Coaching • I shared with her some classroom strategies to “HOOK” her students at the beginning of class. • 5-10 minutes of motivating strategies VS. 90 minutes of unmotivated student learning. • We discussed different types of energizers such as: • Vocabulary Trashketball • M&M activity • Frisbee toss • Beach ball speaking activity.

8. Coaching (continued) • As we discussed and I explained these motivating activities, I could see her wall starting to come down. She was becoming more receptive to my suggestions. The more I explained and the more I talked about my personal experience as a classroom teacher, her wall start to come down even more. • Once the wall was down, I suggested she and the other Spanish teacher work together in their PLC to create lesson and instructional strategies to meet the needs of her students. (Going into the post conference, this was my main focus, but I did not know how I was going to there.)

9. How did this happen? • Listened to her concerns • Let her vent. • Initially did more listening than talking • Broke down her barrier • Talked with her as a classroom teacher and shared personal classroom stories.

10. Post Conference Email I actually found our post conference today inspiring. I have been feeling a little dejected by my 1st period students. You gave me some positive input and I appreciate your ideas.