Observation Blunders - ED 710

On 4/24, I had my final school observation. I went into my pre observation conference confident. I had carefully researched and selected activities that I thought would help my students understand classifying reactions. I had pieced together resources I had found online and those from the other Chemistry teacher. I made appropriate changes to the resources so that they would reflect my own teaching style. Additionally, I had included timing, assuming the activities would take approximately 95 minutes in a 90 minute block. All was good!

Or so I thought...

As I began teaching, I was super excited. The students were engaged and there was a nice mix of activities. Students were working at lab stations, desks, together, and independently. As the students were transitioning to their final independent assignment, I looked at the time and there was about 40 minutes left in class. There was about 5 to 10 minutes left of planned activities and then I was at a loss. However, being the quick thinking individual, I did not panic. Instead, I pulled up the activities for the next class and we worked through some balancing equations problems. The students never knew what happened and the remainder of the class flowed seamlessly.

At my post observation, my AP noted that had he not had a copy of my lesson plan, he would have never known that I made such a huge adjustment. Both my AP and Department Chair commended me for my flexibility and were pleased to see that I handled it professionally and never missed a beat. They also thought that I did a great job making a dry topic accessible to my students. 

I have now learned to plan double, even if it is not written in the lesson plan. Essentially, I need to ensure that I have copies made for the next class so that I have resources available to give to my students.