Highlights of My First Observational Reflection

“Safety first” should be any educator’s policy when it comes to welcoming learners in an academic setting. The safe, fluffy and warm environment can be ensured once the learners feel aware about “what’s next”. Clearly, established classroom routines show up to provide comfort and productivity efficiently. The paper at hand aims to reflect my observation at grade 3, OMEC whereby I shed the light on “The Teacher’s Routines”.

 “Good afternoon class” said the teacher at 1:00pm. She told the class “we have a guest, Ms. Noor is here to watch you all, so you have to speak in English alright? I’m sure all of you will do well in front of her!” The suitability of this goes back to having the teacher set high expectations since the very beginning of the class. These words of hers were supporting and motivating enough for them to move on and speak English without hesitance. To tell you the truth, these words did have a great impact on students’ English performance. They spoke English most of the times, but there were these 3 students who always commented in Arabic. Usually the teacher recasted their words in English and praised their answer selection.

Next, the teacher told students “Hands up and down, hands up and down, hands up and down… now let’s take a deep breath… look at Ms. Eman… If you hear Ms Eman, clap your hands… If you hear Ms Eman cross your hands… Ms Eman wants to see if grade 3 students are polite, respectful and if they’re speaking English”. The effectiveness of this moment reflects the teacher’s choice of following the operational standard in managing the classroom environment and letting things flow neatly. Based add to this, I could sense that the teacher was comprehensibly aware of her area of performance since she followed a classroom management pattern professionally. What makes me believe this kind of professional knowledge belongs to the “pattern” superordinate title goes back to having the students’ performance framed and yet somehow observable (in terms of having a consequence; a quieter atmosphere). 

I could read between the lines that the teacher wanted her students to grow up in the learning process through the frame of neatness and organization not just in the space they’re in, but also in terms of the classroom performance through setting the foundation; different routines.