Suzanne-OB 1

I observed my first class last week - Anisa's upper level listening course. The class atmosphere was relaxed, and the class itself was almost entirely composed of students from different parts of Asia, almost all of whom seemed energetic and excited to be there. I was seated at a table with one student who was clearly the class clown, which provided entertainment on my part throughout the course of the hour - at one point he cursed, but a look from Anisa had him correcting himself. The class began by Anisa writing a lesson plan on the board (always seems to be a good idea) and announcing to the class the plan as well. Next came a few housekeeping items - passing back quizzes, collecting listening logs, etc. Then Anisa quizzed the students on the previous lesson, writing on the board and instruction them verbally how to complete it.

The main part of the class involved a video from PBS about President Obama's Twitter town hall meeting. Anisa passed out a comprehension sheet beforehand, which she used as a guideline for a class discussion about democracy, social media and the President. Then the students watched the video. I was surprised at the difficulty level of it - the commenters spoke very quickly, as well as Obama. However, the pre-video summary sheet related directly to things being said in the video, which I think served the students well. Most of the students seemed like they were actively listening, but others seemed bored, and my first question was whether or not the students were really understanding what was being said. The discussion afterwards began somewhat superficially, but eventually got deeper, concluding with the question, "If you could submit your own question to Obama, what would it be?" I particularly liked that because it forced the students to think outside the box.

Anisa was a good first teacher to observe. For the most part, she had control over the class, in spite of some disruption and chaos from a few students. They seemed to respect her and listen to her, and she didn't need to single out anyone to answer any questions - the level of participation in the class was, in general, quite high. She smiled a lot, which I think puts students at ease, but still commanded the room, moving around instead of staying stationary at the desk. Overall, I quite enjoyed my first observation and can't wait for my next one.