Kimberly Brown

Dr. Cid
Intro to Teaching
24 October, 2015
Observation Matrix
The teacher I observed did a good job of demonstrating subject matter competence. Mr.
Gaglio did an incredible job at making sure all students went at their own speed. He would walk
around the classroom as students did their work on their own and see how they were doing so he
could figure out which students needed more help, and which students could be helpers, as well
as which ones were in between. My teacher also used iready test scores to determine whether
or not his students were on the same level/where they were suppose to be. Another thing Mr.
Gaglio did that I thought was really interesting was that he had some students go in front of the
classroom and teach.
While observing this about Mr. Gaglio, I wondered if he ever had any students that never
quite understood or got the material. I wondered how he might deal with a situation like this, if
he suggests tutoring, or takes a different route. As I observed Mr. Gaglio I also wondered
whether the kids would respond negatively or positively toward his teaching and how he would
come about responding to those reactions.
From observing Mr. Gaglios teaching, I learned so much more than I thought I would. I
learned that you are going to have students who are at different levels of learning and you are
going to have to adapt to that. Along with that I learned that we need to present our students with
different ways to learn the material. And always expect the unexpected.
When Im a teacher, I think that I will try my best to present the subjects As clearly and
diverse as possible. I completely understand that I will have to adjust to the different types of
students that I will have in my classroom, and that I will need to have all the patience in the
world. When I am a teacher I am going to make sure that I ask questions after a lesson to make
sure that all students are on track with the lesson and that any questions that need to be answered,
will be answered.
Mr. Gaglio monitors student learning by walking around the room to see whether his
students are on task or not. He also asks students to explain their answers they got for the

questions(whether they are correct or incorrect). Another way Mr. Gaglio gages student learning
is merely by seeing the way they score on exams, as well as working with students one on one.
While observing, I wondered what to do if a student does really well some days but then
does horrible other days and you would approach this as their teacher. I also wondered what you
would do in a situation where a student just is not improving in their academics. Another thing I
wondered was if there were any other ways you could figure out how to monitor your students
learning during instruction.
Through this, I learned that it is important to see which students need more help than
others and which ones you can turn into leaders in the classroom and help those who are
struggling. I found out that it is important to have different options on how to figure out which
students need more help than others and how to deal with it. I also learned to be patient with
students who may not learn as quickly as others.
From this experience, I came to the conclusion that when I am a teacher, I am going to do
my best to reach out to my students and make them aware that I care about their well-being. As a
teacher, I am going to try to use different ways to monitor my students learning and figure out
how to improve those who are struggling. I also like the idea of having some of your students
who are doing well in a subject be helpers to the other students who are struggling in the same
subject.
Mr. Gaglio used a variety of techniques to keep his students meaningfully engaged in the
classroom. While observing I found that he would sometimes act scenes out from their reading,
or have a student come up and act out a scene. This at times would lead some students to get a
little too riled up. Like stated above, Mr. Gaglio would also have students come to the front of
the class and share how they got an answer on the assignment that they are working on, I noticed
that the students were really engaged while their classmate was the one explaining their answer.
One more technique I noticed was that if students didn't finish their assignment, they would have
to stay in during recess to finish it. I feel like after having this done once, the students tried their
best to stay on task during class time.
I wondered what to do in the instances where students get too riled up during
instructional time. As teachers, I am sure we would all like to have fun throughout our teaching,
but there are always those students who get a little out of control. I also wondered what to do in
an incident where you are trying to get your students engaged on a subject such as science or

history, because while observing I did not get the opportunity to see Mr. Gaglio teach these
subjects.
Through observing the way he engaged his students, I learned that it is okay to be a little
quirky and fun in the classroom, as long as you know when to tone it down. I also learned that
you are going to need to know how to handle students with different personalities and how to
reach out to those who may not get engaged as easily as others. He also helped me come to the
conclusion that students love listening to their classmates, and that is a very useful way of getting
them involved, as well as getting them engaged in the classwork.
When I become a teacher I am going to try to master (although impossible to master
anything really) how to balance both being fun and energetic in the classroom, while having
discipline at the same time. I am also going to make sure to engage my students by having their
classmates teach every now and then, because I feel like this not only gets the other students
engaged, but helps them start to develop leadership qualities.
While observing there were no students in the classroom that stuck out as second
language learners. Therefore there was really no way for me to observe this particular topic.
Although it might have been helpful to observe this, unfortunately none of the students in Mr.
Gaglios class struggled with English as a second language.
I grew up speaking Spanish as my first language before I started going to school. My
grandmother would watch me every day and that is all that she spoke when I was a child, so that
is what I grew up learning. Once I started going to preschool I instantly started learning English
because of how young I was that was the language that over powered my Spanish speaking. I
now rarely speak spanish and am no longer fluent, I wondered if maybe there were some
students in the classroom who might have gone through similar situations.
I learned that even though you might not have second language learners in your
classroom, you need to be prepared for them just in case. You need to have different way to reach
out to those students who are struggling with English as a second language. Even if you may not
speak whatever their first language was, you can always help them find a tutor who can help
guide them through their school work that they are stifling with.
As a teacher I will probably reach out to other teachers to see how they deal with second
language learned in their classroom, because I know that it is not the easiest thing to figure out
on your own. I will also try to reach out to the parents and see if they might want to try to better

understand english so that they could be helping their students. As well as suggesting maybe a
private tutor or something of the sort.
While observing, I noticed that Mr. Gaglio used the iready test scores to see which
students werent at 3rd grade level in subjects, and which ones were advanced. I also noticed that
every day a couple of students would get pulled out by another teacher who focused on specific
subjects with them in another classroom. Mr. Gaglio also meets with parents to see what things
might need to be worked on with certain students within the classroom.
I wondered how you would help those students if you were at a school that did not
provide a special needs program. I wondered if Mr. Gaglio ever worked with these students one
on one, or if it was just the teacher who works with those children. I wondered how a teacher
would balance having multiple children in their classroom who needed special attention and how
they would distribute the right amount of attention to those who don't need as much attention.
From observing the way Mr. Gaglio works with his students who require special
attention, I learned that again, you need to be prepared for all types of personalities in the
classroom. I also learned that you need to have a great amount of patience for these children.
Some students are going to be more difficult than others and you have to know how to handle
them in the proper way without disciplining them too much.
From observing all of this, when I am a teacher I plan to do my best to stay patient and
calm with my students, even if they are being very difficult in the classroom. While at the same
time, know when I should be sending to the principle, or calling their parents about their
behavior. I also know that I would like to try to work one on one with students who struggle
academically and let their families know that there are a variety of tutoring options to help
improve their academic performance.
One of the disciplinary actions i noticed while observing Mr. Gaglios teaching was
whenever a student didn't finish their homework assignment from the night before, he would
have them stay in during one of their recess to complete the assignment. In a sense, this would
affect a students social environment because they wouldn't be able to go to recess and socialize
with their friends and take a break from classwork. At the same time, I think that is why this is
such an effective form of discipline, because its going to make them want to work that much
harder the next time. Another form of discipline that I observed when children were acting out in

the classroom and causing distractions for other students, Mr. Gaglio would have them either
move to the front of the classroom, or sit on the ground in the front of the classroom and do their
work there.

I wondered what Mr. Gaglio would do in a situation where the same child was

being disruptive even after going through the different types of disciplinary actions. I also
wondered when was the appropriate time to send a child to the principles office or call their
parents, and what actions would lead up to something like this.
I definitely learned that it is easy to determine which children you are going to have
issues with in just a matter of a couple days. It was very easy for me to pick out the ones who
were giving Mr. Gaglio a hard time, but I also learned that those who act out are usually ones
with leadership potential personalities who as teachers, we need to direct down a more
leadership-like path.
From This experience I think that when I become a teacher I am going to keep track of
the amount of times a student is disrespectful or acts out, and then maybe talk to their parents
about it. I think I will also try to do what Mr. Gaglio did, by trying to turn those students who are
full of energy and have leadership qualities, into leaders in the classroom. I think it is important
to build students up as people, rather than tearing them down every time they mess up. We don't
always know what is going on at a students home, so I think that it is so vital to love of those
students who may be troubled.
While I was observing, there wasn't much technology being used in the classroom. I
know that the students go to the computer lab once a week and that they take reading evaluations
on the computers in the back of the classroom when on the schedule to do so, but other than that
I did not see much use of technology. While I observed, my teacher was either teaching out of a
book, or the students were doing work on their own.
Because of this, I wondered if he never used technology because the students were at a
young age and don't need to be exposed to this so early on, or if it had more to do with the school
requirements. I wondered if this truly did benefit the children, not being so evolved with
technology, not only at home, but at school as well.
Through this, I learned that as a teacher, you don't always need technology to teach
younger students. I also learned that might actually be to their benefit to give them a bit of a rest
from technology. Their generation, even my generation, are becoming more and more

surrounded by technology, so it might be good for students to keep it out of the classroom, also
because it might come as a distraction to the students.
Technology is something that I think I would like to try to keep to a minimum in my
classroom. Although technology is such a huge part of our world, I think that for at least
elementary school, it should be kept to a minimum in the classroom. Students are going to be
using technology before and after school, I think that to have it in school as well would be a
distraction for children at such a young age.
I saw that Mr. Gaglio would constantly check in on his students to see what answers they
got after giving them time to work on their own. He would have students debate their answers,
which I thought was such a cool technique to get them ready for future, more advanced
discussions. He also would allow his students, even if they did not have the correct answer, to
explain themselves on why they chose or got the answers that they got. This helped them grow in
their public speaking, as well as teaching other students how to explain their answers rather than
just randomly choosing them. I also noticed that at the end of the lesson, right before lunch he
would have a student summarize what they were just learning about in front of the rest of the
class.
I wondered how he got the reserved students to speak out and share their feelings about
the material. I was honestly shocked that 99% of the class would be very verbal, wanting to
answer his questions out loud in front of the class, but you could definitely tell that there were
some students who were more outspoken than others. I wondered how he would approach those
students who are the ones who always answer questions and volunteer, whether he would ignore
their eagerness to share, or if he would just allow them to share their thoughts all the time.
When I was teaching a math problem in front of the class and I asked the students to
share their answers, every student rose their hand to share. I learned to pick on those who don't
always share their answers to help them grow in explaining and describing why they got what
they got. I also learned to give every student a chance by allowing them to explain their answer
even if it was different than how the other students found the solution, or even if it wasn't the
correct answer.
Having your students reflect on what they are learning in class doesn't only help them it
helps you as a teacher. I think that I will definitely have students volunteer to share their thoughts
on the subject being covered in class to help me see which students are leaders and which ones I

need to work on being more vocal in the classroom. This also helps to see which students aren't
understanding the material being covered in class so as a teacher I can help guide them to
different materials that will help them get caught up with the rest of the class.