Observation

notes October 17th, 2016 Kelly Gordon

Lesson One Puberty year 7

The class comes in and settles nicely. Kelly seems relaxed and friendly despite having two observers
in her classroom and despite the lesson focus of puberty. Many other teachers, both junior and
senior would not be coping with what might be considered to be added pressure whilst teaching
what might be perceived as a tough topic. Not Kelly though, she appears un phased. In previous
classes I have noticed Kellys demeanour and thought to myself if only you could teach that to both
preservice teachers and other teachers. It is clear she has a terrific rapport with the students, the
students respond well to her and I have to say both Michael and I do as well.

Kelly opens the lesson by mentioning previous work completed in other lessons. She is attempting
to join the dots for the students so that they have a context for the learning they are about to
engage with. She opens up google docs, rather seamlessly and brings up a series of numbered
school photos of her as a way to encourage students to think about changes that occur as they grow
up. She set the students a challenge; they had to sequence the photos from youngest to oldest. The
students loved it. They appeared to have fun trying to work out the sequence. Kelly gave them a
few minutes and then called for responses. She managed student responses well. There was
friendly banter, several laughs (including us) and some real honesty from Kelly about her fringe
(apparently it was a cool look back then). She posed the question what do you notice about the
different photos? Students mentioned a range of things including hair, skin, face, height, size. Kelly
used this as a way to lead into todays topic puberty. She put up a photo of her in prep as a way to
highlight that lots of changes take place as you grow and that puberty is a key time where lots of
changes take place sometimes quickly and at different times for different people. She highlighted
though that we all go through it. My sense is Kelly is wanting to make sure that students understand
that whilst change is normal, changes take place at different times for different people. This is an
important message for students to understand so that they dont feel different or think that other
people are different because they may not have developed x, y and z. Difference is normal and as
an early career teacher, her work here was incredibly impressive. I might have been tempted to
have spent some more time consolidating this, but I also understand that time is tight and this is
really just an intro activity. I imagine she will come back to it throughout the class given it is a key
message.

Kelly brings the lesson learning intentions up on the screen, and goes through them. They all seem
appropriate. Next, she moves to a slide that states How do I know I have been successful in this
lesson? (Success criteria).

Her next move is to pose the question Why will we change so much over the next couple years ?
It is a great inquiry question that potentially will provide students with a terrific opportunity to
develop some deep understandings related to the physical, social and emotional changes that take
place as they grow up.
One of the things that is key though is helping students develop an understanding of what the
changes are. To begin this conversation Kelly sets up a Puberty brain storm with the work
Puberty in a cloud in the middle of the screen. She gets students to think about changes for a few
minutes and then asks a student up to help her collate responses. As responses were added Kelly
would spend some time unpacking what students were saying, or clarifying, or asking more
questions. What was astounding was how comfortable students were. It is very early days in the
unit and it seemed that students felt comfortable responding to questions, and asking questions.
This I think is a testament to the work that Kelly has done in the class to ensure a safe environment.
It also relates again to how Kelly engages with students, encouraging them to respond, to think, or
to have fun.

Once Kelly had a list of different changes that take place as you grow up, she put a slide up that
defined puberty and asked students to write it down in their books. I wonder whether the definition
could have come first, before the brainstorm about the changes, but it might have been that Kelly
was trying to get a sense of what students knew about the various changes.

Once students have completed that she sets up a Kahoot quiz that tests what students know about
puberty related to myths and facts. The kids enjoyed the Kahoot. In between questions Kelly spent
some time unpacking responses. It is tricky because the very nature of Kahoot kind of locks you into
a particular kind of timing that means it isnt always possible to explore some of the responses in
depth. To do so breaks the rhythm. This is not Kellys fault, I think it is a problem with Kahoot
actually. I also think that there will be time to get more into detail later and perhaps this is a lead
into something else.

And yes it was. The students are now going to do a research task. I love this. I love that Kelly is
drawing their attention to a website Kids health website. I also love that she doesnt give them the
actual address, she makes them find it themselves. This is again terrific health education, the best if
you ask me as it provides students with a website they can go to if they have any questions and/or
need help. Such an important connection to make. The task is as follows:

1. Have a browse though the Teen Health - body information
2. Write down three interesting facts that you think your peers should know about puberty
3. Where else could you source information about your body and puberty.

Students begin working away on the task. Kelly makes her way around the class checking on student
progress and if they have any questions. Students do and they clearly feel comfortable asking her
things. Kelly notices that time is ticking and asks students to take a photo of the questions and
mentions that they will finish the task next lesson. She hurried them along so she could overview
what students needed to do for preparation for the next lesson.
Kelly then takes the class back to the success criteria to check in with what students should be able
to do/know. She then mentioned what students needed to do for next class. This included:

Class two preparation - go to google classroom Kelly has done a flow chart about hormones. I
want you to go through and create a flowchart - this is my flowchart use it as a guide. Do that in
your book or on your iPad. Whatever you want to do. She is using the task and in particular the
flow chart as a way to help students develop their understanding (and show their understandings)
about hormones. It is a clever strategy and what makes it even better is that she has prepared an
example for students who might have difficulty understanding what a flow chart is.

My overall thoughts:
Kelly is an excellent teacher. Her content and pedagogical knowledge and skills are to my
mind incredibly advanced. This of course does not surprise me as she was a stand out
student at Monash
I loved being in Kellys classroom. There is a clear sense that it is a safe environment and
that she connects well with the students. She balances humour so very well and the
students respond to this. Even when dealing with the potentially difficult topic of puberty,
Kellys approach meant that students felt comfortable. This is a credit to Kelly.
It is clear Kelly is passionate about learning and thinks deeply about this. This is reflected in
her pedagogical strategy mix but also by how she sets up inquiry processes.
 I kept wondering about assessment and how the work that students were doing was
contributing to an assessment task (or not).
I also thought that I would love to have Kelly contribute to some of my health education
methods classes at Monash. I think it would be so valuable to have her insights as a
graduate teacher.
I do wonder about Kahoot and whether as a stand alone it is the best choice for learning
here. But I think I think that more and more now as I have watched a lot of Kahoots in my
time.

Dr Deana Leahy
Senior Lecturer in Health Education
Faculty of Education
Monash University