Benchmark - Clinical Field Experience D: Beginning Teacher Observation and Feedback

Leonard Martinez

April 13th, 2022

EAD-530-O500
Summarize the pre-conference, the observation, and the post-conference you completed in the

coaching cycle. In the summary, explain the recommendations you made and justify how each

will continue to develop the teacher’s instructional capacity. Describe the teacher’s

performance based on the improvements you suggested in the pre-conference.

Ms. Beck was observed following her freshman English 1-2 for fifth period. Doing so, a

pre-conference was held where we showed the teacher the grading evaluation sheet as well as the

establishment of what was to be observed and what I will be doing as an administrative role in

the classroom. It was communicated that I will not disrupt the learning environment unless

needed and my opening questions to Ms. Beck we geared towards what I expected while in her

class. I asked for specific highlights of collaborations and instructional strategies to see if one,

they were taken into considerations for class instruction and if she is following district and

school expectations for teachers. Furthermore, I asked open ended questions geared towards

seeing if Ms. Beck has some areas of difficulty to look out for in order to help her refine her

skills. This questioning learned from principal mentor Mr. Tarver is to see if the teacher is

conscious of areas of refinement and reflective of their own skills which speaks of self-efficacy.

There was an area of concern with classroom management for the fifth hour and strategies for

success in retention.

The observation as followed went smoothly. The biggest highlight was areas of

approached group activities. The teacher struggled with classroom management and went from

group or partnered work to independent (as observed in her slides). Today's activity was with

annotated texts for a handout, some students were off task and using technology. The online use

of a discussion board was a highlight of collaborations where students could see each other's

responses. There was a lot of proximity used and constant reminders for students to get on task.
There was an effort to move a child as well who was not cooperating with initial group work; a

student was singled out and did work after. Furthermore, there was usage of imagery and

pictures to carry forth vocabulary found in the article. The teacher did well on her feedback for

grouped and individual students.

The post conference was the backbone of feedback delivered according to what was

observed. It was evident this was the most rowdy and challenging class considering the number

of males present in the classroom and the fact this was the class first n after lunch. Therefore, it's

considered that there will be more classroom management expected through these factors

including the age group of the students. For classroom management, the usage of proximity was

highlighted as well as managing student’s behavior. It was suggested that it would be beneficial

to keep the group work and usage of collaborations to better enhance lessons rather than

canceling it midway. Although the teacher took it upon herself to make sure to avoid much

trouble, it made the lesson lose its focus in collaborating with others towards the end. Some

feedback in this area for refinement were cooperative learning models as learned and discussed

in the Kagan strategies the teacher should have attended to have students engage the learning for

enhanced learning. Although there was an attempt to have students engage, when things got a

little too rowdy and off task it was mentioned that this was a structure and organizational issue,

not a student issue. “Cooperative implies an attitude or behavior together in working or helping

among others in an orderly structure of cooperation in groups, consisting of two or more people

where the success of work is strongly influenced by the involvement of each member of the

group itself” (Hisasa & Supadi & Yanti, p. 65). We want to encourage the energy in the

classroom for enhanced learning. It might take a little work but it will be worth it. The think pair

share model was recommended as well as red robin and rally coach to discuss critical thinking
and text analyses. It might be beneficial to ban usage of snacks for this class considering the

distraction it was in class for students. Set the expectations early on in class to make sure all

students understand. Another form of feedback was positive reinforcement for the usage of

technology, we considered keeping the reading online as well.

Describe the recommendations you made for the effective use of technology, and explain how

each supports teaching and learning in that classroom environment.

Considering the age of Ms. Beck and her education, it was interpreted that she knows

how to efficiently use technology in her class. Such proof observed was the usage of instructing

students to go on google classroom and access work as well as her engaging PowerPoint slide

and usage of media. The only recommendation I gave was the usage of delivering content using

a gamified experience like Peardeck, which was a heavy initiative this year among staff for one-

to-one technology in class. Mrs. Beck expressed she has used it before but not for this lesson. It

was explained that there could have been a variety of ways to use this, I suggested that for

example we can take the reading into chunks and portray it on PearDeck live for students to see

and read along. There is a utensil on the PearDeck of drawing and there they have a highlighting

activity as well. I explained that with this we can lock students' screens and see live who is on

task and who is not. The responses and feedback are live and Ms. Beck took note of the

suggestion. In this, I remained Ms. Beck of the vision and mission statement of the district and

school and empathized the usage of technology to prepare students, as the vision statement

states, for retention. “Traditional ways of learning created little retention and engagement and the

usage of technology extends learning beyond the classroom and at the same time brings the

larger world into the classroom as well: applicable and relatable (Varier, et. al., 2017, p. 968).
 I praised the teacher heavily for the usage of what was already present in the classroom

for technology. The approach for the praise and to challenge the teacher to continue to

implement the one-to-one initiative in class is to build the confidence in teachers to effectively

use technology in class that is more than a mindset (Miners, p. 36). I did observe a few issues

with personal students' use of technology in class and asked if there was a notice from the

teacher on this and what does the policy for electronics look like in class. We did discuss the

usage of those media and how having a gamified curriculum that “incorporate game design

elements into lessons, as tools that can engage students, enhance classrooms, and nurture new

forms of learning” (Rizk, et. al., 2021) could be really beneficial. If students are engaged, they

will learn and essentially behave as well. We discussed several ways to use technology in class

and I gave other usage of media in classroom to involve such gamified ideas for retention and

engagement. The online discussion board for discussion and answering the prompt questions

following the students reading was highlighted to be very effective. Padlet allowed students to

use their devices and the teacher asked for an image using the vocabulary term in action and

students were able to find an image and answer the prompts as well. This allowed visual learners

to learn from what was being presented and seen through the eyes of others like themselves.

Explain how your coaching promoted a school culture conducive to collaboration, trust, and a

personalized learning environment with high expectations for students.

Like every opportunity made on campus, we want to make sure that on the secondary

level we are promoting enough collaborations to make sure students are actively engaged in their

learning and prepared for the communities to which they will be released to. My coaching was

aimed to continuously promote these interactive opportunity sin class with structure and high

expectations. The teacher did not drive those and it was spoken that if she took the time to
explain to the student what was expected and how to handle these short activities of collaborative

work among each other than the expectations would already be set with parameters of how to

conduct themselves in these activities. Doing so, we achieve high expectations for students while

promoting a personalized learning environment that is safe, collaborative, busy, and full of new

ideas from each other. For that, we talked about what the teacher could have done differently in

the situations following the classroom management. Using strategic wording, it was suggested

that classroom management was not the student but rather the teacher responsibility and utmost

full control. Doing so, modeling and reinforcement was not observed, instead what was observed

was a tossing out of new ideas (giving up) in order to safeguard looking bad in front of an

administrator. “As educators we must model, reinforce, and legitimize such traits in order to

continuously encourage students to build good character” (Agbool & Tsai, pg. 166). Essentially

the initiative and model of the school is to do exactly that and we cannot formulate to build good

character in students unless they bond with one another and deal with others perception and

opinions. We must make more opportunities such as this and Ms. Beck, although did good to

diffuse an activity that was not going her way in order for pacing of content, there could be

opportunities in class where the learning happens naturally and saves the teacher work rather

than having to find other ways to teach it. As Dr. Gilness (2003) states “The best and deepest

moral training is that which one gets by having to enter into proper relations with others”

(Gilness, pg. 243).

Reflect on your role as a teacher coach, and how self-awareness, vulnerability, transparency,

and ethical behavior contribute to being a successful coach.

So first, I had to practice empathy and put myself in the shoes of the teacher as a first

year taking on a freshman class. It is definitely no easy task, furthermore she is a female of
Anglo descent in a classroom of minority students. Knowing a little background of her story as

well, Ms. Beck was a student teacher for a teacher that had passed away in December of 2021.

She was asked to fill a spot needed and take on the responsibility of a full class in a long-term

substitute spot. So, in reality, she is missing an entire first semester of forming bonds with these

students in her class as she mentioned in the post conference. Furthermore, the criteria for

grading stays the same, my mentality shifted to expectations. I had to set my expectations to be

realistic and measurable given the teacher's circumstances and the students. Being self-aware, the

critique behind my feedback was aimed towards helping the teacher become an excellent

facilitator class to produce a healthy interactive classroom environment. I had to be transparent

on things I saw that were a little incorrect in order to ask the teacher for her feedback to see if we

aligned. In reality, I had to be vulnerable and see that the school technically asked Ms. Beck to

take a heavy responsibility and essentially make it work and Ms. Beck is doing an exemplary job

doing so with what she has. I had to be ethical and even ask her about her timing and what it

looks like as a student, coach, and now teacher on campus who does it all.

Classroom management was an area Ms. Beck asked in the preconference to keep an eye

out for and that's the areas we focused on the most to pinpoint why students misbehave towards

her and the overall environment in class. Instead of looking at these students as jittery freshmen,

we wanted to shift the energy in the room as an opportunity to harness new activities for

learning. I did research before coming in and asked around about Ms. Beck. I touched basis with

Ms. Beck even prior to the pre-conference for some informal bonding and talking time. This

allowed me to establish a notion of who Ms. Beck is as a person so that when I step into the

classroom I get to see Ms. Beck as a teacher. Although they are different they aligned, she was

transparent and had a heart for the student and the campus. Although her credibility and rapport
in school and among students is fairly new, her approach to learning more established her hunger

for improvement. Accordion got her feedback and our discussion; my coaching was greatly

considered. In reality I gave her tools to engage students and make her job easier with the bits

and pieces of teaching.

 References

Fina Hiasa, Supadi Supadi, & Nafri Yanti. (2022). The implementation of TPS (think pair share)

cooperative learning model aided by Google hangouts in literary expression course.

Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, 7(1), 63–75. https://doi-

org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.33369/joall.v7i1.14247

Varier, D., Dumke, E. K., Abrams, L. M., Conklin, S. B., Barnes, J. S., & Hoover, N. R..

(2017). Potential of one-to-one technologies in the classroom: teachers and students

weigh in. Educational Technology Research and Development, 65(4), 967–992.

Miners, Z. (2009, April 1). Classroom technology integration: having technology is one thing--

maximizing the investment is another. District Administration, 45(4), 35.

Agboola, A., & Tsai, K. C. (2012). Bring Character Education into Classroom. European Journal

of Educational Research, 1(2), 163–170.

Gilness, J. (2003). CLASSROOM PRACTICE - How to Integrate Character Education into the

Curriculum. Phi Delta Kappan, 85(3).