Electives Course Observation Note Catcher

In these chaotic two years my Enrichment team was left to fend for itself. On one campus were two new-to-teaching enrichment teachers with instructional coaches who didn’t have knowledge of their contents. Then one of the teachers left, then one of their instructional coaches left. Myself and my colleague on the second campus are veteran teachers and needed little to no instructional support. I decided to take it upon myself to support the remaining enrichment teacher on the other campus which required me to create a system of observing my fellow enrichment/arts/electives teachers. I was not given any guidance from my leadership team; this was something that needed to be done for my team and I took it upon myself to do on my own.

This note catcher is a version that was used by my instructional coach at my first school who had no background in music or teaching music. I loved the simplicity of it because it created an easy way to have a discussion with her rather than being told what she thought I was doing wrong; we became a collaborative team: she learned how to coach an arts teacher, and I learned how to use different teaching strategies. I am not an expert in PE, Visual Arts, or Theatre, so I felt this approach would work for a growing network of schools that varies in the types of Enrichment classes they offer.

The format is easy to follow: while actively observing a lesson I note the bright spots (no matter how small) in the first column. The second column (which used the Greek notation for “change”) are suggestions of what to change in the lesson. This can be anything from the entry routine, how students are seated, or the flow from one point of the lesson to the other. For me, it is NEVER about how to teach the content, just fixes that align with common management techniques that may be whole-school methods (as it is with my schools), will just help the flow of the class go smoother. The final column is for my own personal questions. In taking other notes there may have been something I missed, or I noticed an inconsistency in the usage of vocabulary or a routine. This is where my personal learning happens, where I can get more insight into the content area and what the teacher is trying to accomplish.

I also never just leave my notes with the teacher without having any discussion as was sometimes done with me. I always fins time to do a debrief in person and if that is not possible as it sometimes was with my schedule since I was also teaching, I emailed my biggest notes to the teacher I observed and took note of those again the next time I observed.

I hope you find this helpful in supporting your fellow colleagues and Enrichment teachers! Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions on using this resource and any feedback you have!