Organized Chaos

I observed 2 different class periods with the same teacher. He called the first one his "rest period" because he pretty much just talked at the beginning then the kids built their crash-test-dummy/egg cars. I think he was actually in the classroom for maybe 10 minutes the entire 80 minute class. He had 2 TAs in there, one student and one adult. The kids were on task for the most part and were really working hard to get their cars done.

The second class was the one that Tara and Braden talked about. He talked for the first part then they all went crazy doing their own things. I was amazed that he was able to help all the kids in a timely manner. We had to leave after the first 15 minutes or so, but he had amazing classroom management skills. I could tell the kids wanted to be there, and that helped too.

After teaching for 35 years, I asked him if he changed his lesson plans often. His response: "You're assuming I use lesson plans." He pretty much has a shelf-structure where he keeps all the handouts on all the projects so that kids can go get them as needed. The class pretty much runs itself. Oh, to be a teacher of 35 years...