Observing a Pro.

Andrew Stocks is the Head of Learning Area, Science, at Broome Senior High School.  He teaches a range of subjects including Human Biology, Virology and Metalwork. Today, I observed him teach a group of Year 9 students Metalwork.  Observation is a powerful tool for professional learning...
 
‘Stocksy’ as students call him, is a master of his profession.  Warmth radiates from him, evident as he greets the students by name as they enter the room ‘Alright mate, how are ya’? ‘Rusty, how’s it going’.  Spending Period 4 in his class today, I observed the following: 

• Stocksy’s personality or affect is warm and welcoming. He greets all students by name as they enter the room, making them feel welcome. 
• Stocksy is animated!  He moves around a lot; he uses his body to express concepts and techniques and ideas.  There is nothing lethargic or apathetic about him and by extension, this creates a learning atmosphere conducive to action.
• Stocksy’s passion for his subject is evident; it oozes from him.  This is reflected in how he talks about the subject and in the breadth and depth of his pedagogical content knowledge.
• Stocksy explicitly encourages student ownership and choice regarding their learning.  He does this primarily through language: ‘If I were you, I’d do this (models action) but it’s up to you, go for your life.  If you decide to do it this way and be more brazen, this is the way you should do it (models again)’.  I saw this also reflected in student language as they articulated the rationale behind certain choices they made ‘I changed my plan because…’
• He makes the learning relevant to students’ lives: ‘If you want to make one (camp cooker) for when you go camping, you can make it to the size you want’.
• Stocksy provides explicit, targeted feedback to individual students.
• Stocksy uses ‘failures’ as teachable moments.  At one point, a student dropped a large metal weight which he was using as part of a hole-drilling process.  Stocksy instantly used this moment to further the student’s learning: ‘Ok, so you’ve snapped your drill, yeah? Next time you do this, it’s best to…’. Another example of this was when a student was conducting some drilling and Stocksy pointed out ‘a bit too much carbon there, that’s why that’s happening’ as the student nodded in agreement.
• Stocksy provides work to all students at their respective levels and makes accommodations according to student need.  For example, where students present with low literacy, written instructions are supplemented in photo form.