Student sample

Students name and ID _______

Observation report
It is a very difficult task to be a good teacher. Teachers carry a huge responsibility
and face a lot of problems and difficulties. Besides knowledge, the teachers must
be capable of transmitting their knowledge to the students, like an artist transmits
his\her feelings to the audience. Personally, I have never thought about these
things, until recently, when I had to observe three classes and see the learningteaching process from a different point of view. It is quite easy to appoint a teacher
as a good or a bad one, but it is difficult to put your self into his/ her position and
face the difficulties they face everyday.

The first class I observed was taught by a non-native English teacher. The
teacher began the class by taking evidence for the students attendance. Then he
asked the students to sit in a semi-circle for it was the most appropriate chair
arrangement to achieve the goals of that class. All features related to the
environment, in this case the classroom, were appropriate and acceptable: the room
size was appropriate to the number of students; the lighting, the room arrangement
and the room temperature were acceptable.
The class began on time. The teacher didnt really define the lesson plan at the
start at the class. Instead she made a revision of what they had learned in the last
class. She used this information and knowledge to introduce the new topic they

were supposed to talk that class. Since the new topic was dealing with food types,
the students were asked about their favorite food. Also, the teacher made a
connection with the general knowledge they have about different types of food all
around the world to have students get into the topic. After the brief discussion, the
teacher played a tape recorder while the students had to listen and take notes. She
played the tape three times, the instructions were: the first time you just listen to
the tape, the second time you listen and take notes and the third time you listen
again and check your notes. After that, the students had to answer some questions
related to the listening task. The questions were in the book and they had to work in
pairs to answer those questions. The teacher used this part to introduce the
students with a grammar point.
During all this time the teacher was smiling and very kind. She moved all around
the classroom and helped the students when they needed help. She spoke only in
English, even when students asked for clarifications, but it was effective and
appropriate for their English level. However, she couldnt hold the attention of the
students, for only few of them participated and the others talked with each-other.
The class atmosphere was warm and open.
The teacher used the white board in moderation. She used audio materials and
gave them handouts. But, she didnt have enough copies for everyone. When
speaking she didnt correct the students mistakes which were mostly grammatical
and problems with the pronunciation.

The second class I observed was also taught by a non-native English teacher.
The class started late for the teacher didnt come on time. At the beginning she
arranged the chairs so the students would work either in pairs or in groups of three.
She combined them in a way so that they would have at least one book per group or
pair. Next she took evidence for the students attendance. The teaching
environment features were all right so she didnt have to check them.
She didnt define the lesson plan at the beginning of the class. She used a
discussion about the students last vacation in ordered to get to a grammatical
point: the past tense. Then she gave a task to the students. They had to complete
some incomplete questions; more exactly they had to fill in the blanks with the
appropriate form of a verb in order to get meaningful questions. The students
didnt do well on this task for they couldnt solve it. They asked several times for
explanations and still their answers were almost all wrong. She tried to explain and
make them understand how the past simple is done, but without success.
The overall atmosphere in the classroom wasnt that pleasant. Maybe the reason
for this was the fact that this was a grammar class and students in general hate
grammar. They hardly participated and it could be see in her faces that they were
bored. The teacher tried to explain in the best way possible. She spoke slowly and
loudly so the students would eventually catch the point being made. She moved all
around the class room and helped them. Also she made sure that everyone is
working on the given task because it is a fact that when in groups or pairs not all
students participate the same.

The third class I observed was quite different from the two previous ones. The
overall atmosphere, the teaching methods, etc., differed in many ways from the
ones that could be noticed in the firs two observed classes.
The teacher came on time and she didnt take evidence of the students evidence.
She knew them all, so she could notice who is missing. Then she made the students
to have a short conversation with each other in order to make them speak in
English. Then the students were asked to tell some news ore something interesting.
After this conversation they were told to open their books and read an article. This
was peer work. Next, the students had to answer questions related to the article
they have read. The teacher moved all around the classroom and helped them by
explaining the meaning of the unknown words.
The white board was not used that much, instead students were encouraged to
talk with each other and clarify the things they might not know. The students
participation was lively and quite active. They talked freely with their teacher and
colleagues. The overall atmosphere was quite warm, open and relaxing. The
teacher spoke only English, in a clear manner and loudly enough to be heard by all
the students in the classroom and held perfectly the attention of the students. The
students worked in pairs and sometimes in small groups of three.

In my opinion, all these classes I observed were missing some important things
and there were some important issues to work on. For example, the first teacher

had problems with getting the students attention. In those cases, the teacher
should think of another method or technique of teaching that will help her to get
their attention, or even talk with them and try to figure out what is wrong.
In the second class I observed, the students had a lot of difficulties to understand
what was taught by the teacher and even though she put a lot of effort to make
them understand it didnt succeed. In this case, I think that that the teacher should
be more flexible and go with simpler exercises. It can happen that few students can
not understand a certain lecture. But if the whole group can not understand it then
there must be something wrong and the teacher should take it as a sign that there
should be changed something, (the teaching techniques and methods, the level of
difficulty of the exercises, etc.).
These three observations I did, helped me a lot. They made me to start to think
about the teachers position and role in the teaching/learning process. For the first
time, I analyzed the process from a different position; I was in the classroom but I
was not a student. When you are not involved in the process itself you are more
objective and you are able to see the things in a different light. This experience was
very useful for I saw the practical side of many theorical courses I have attended
until now.