Observational Learning Report (IP&T 301)

     For this project I decided to observe my choir teacher. The reason I decided to observe him, is because he teaches in away that I have never been taught before. the first day we walked in, there was a list on the board of what we would be doing that day. In addition to the songs that were listed, there were also specific times next to the songs and the measure he wanted us to go to in the song. (4:35 Ave Maria, m. 47) At first I thought that this seemed a little too specific but as we started class, I was very surprised at how well it worked. 

      As we finished each song listed on the board he would point to the next item on the board and everyone would go there. There wasn't any time that was wasted. When he had us stand up and down he always gave us something to do or say so that we stayed on task. I have been in choirs before where there are huge amounts of time wasted on standing up and sitting down because everyone thinks that it is the best time to talk. this particular teacher is quick on his toes and always filling every second of our time and his. 

     As a learner, for the first few days I was a little confused about the way he approached things, but there were a lot of people who had him previously and knew exactly what was expected of us and how we should go about doing it. 

     I really like the way he goes about teaching and the strategies he uses. He is every efficient with the time he is given and he doesn't have to do much talking. We all knew what was expected of us and he only explained it bit by bit as went along. I don't know if this type of teaching would work for all types of classes, but I was amazed how well it worked with our class. He has been teaching for quite a while and I think that he has gained more and more experience with this type of teaching. 

     For choir and this particular class I don't think that I would do anything differently. But, if I were to use some of the same strategies in my elementary classroom, I would have to change them a little bit. I think that children would need to know what was expected of them by me actually telling them. I wouldn't have half of the class that had been there before to help the others out. I really like this strategy of listing the agenda on the board with times. I believe that this would be very effective in any type of classroom. It would keep the class on track and the students would know what to look forward to. I also really like the way that he kept us buy in transitions so that it kept our mind going. I think that this would be a very helpful strategy to use in any classroom. 

     I found the way that he taught very interesting and refreshing. he taught in a way that I had never been taught and I think that I learned a lot from it. He uses his time efficiently and accomplishes what he wants to in each class period. I think that these strategies can be used in all classrooms and would be very helpful!