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 * Teacher Observation Case Studies - Case Study 2**

Mr. Garcia is a seventh grade Science teacher in a K-8 school with approximately 1,000 students. He is a relatively new teacher. His class has 28 students. The school has two computer labs as well as two mobile laptop carts and several Smartboards. Mr. Garcia informs you that students do a pull-out technology period once a week where they learn word processing and some PowerPoint and he plans to collaborate with the technology teacher after the State tests are over. Mr. Garcia’s class performed adequately on NYS exams last year.

As you enter the class, you take note of how the room has been organized. The desks and chairs have been arranged in seven groups of four. The walls are decorated with student projects that have been neatly typed and contain some graphics and tables. There is a row of desktop computers in the back of the room and a Smartboard at the front of the room.

The class settles down immediately and Mr. Garcia begins the lesson, a review of the parts of the microscope, by using the Smartboard. Using a PowerPoint presentation, he does a short lecture on the parts of the microscope that lists the various parts. Photographs of different microscopes appear in the slides and he points on the different parts on each slide. After the presentation, Mr. Garcia has the students complete a handout that contains a diagram of a microscope and asks them to label each part. The teacher collects the handouts from each student and then distributes one microscope to each table. He also gives each group of students a sheet of labels. The students write the parts of the microscope on the labels and then stick the labels on the appropriate part of the microscope. Mr. Garcia circulates to each group to assess their progress. The homework that evening is for students to complete their reading of chapter 3 and answer the questions at the end of the chapter.

//How would you advise Mr. Garcia?//