FIU

Off-Campus Observation Map

Your Name: Juan D Balleza

E-Mail: Jball024@fiu.edu

Name of School: Zelda Glazer Middle School

Name of Teacher Observed: Mr. De Jesus
Observation Date: 10/06/2014

Describe the teaching

environment. Who are the
children? Who is the teacher?
How might the school environment
impact what happens in the
classroom?

What were the teachers goals for

the class/ensemble? How did
she/he act on those?

Town: Miami
Class: Band
Time: 9:00 11:00 am

State: Florida
Grade(s) 8th, 9th
Date Submitted: 10/07/2014

There was an orchestra room, with stands, chairs and 3 to 4 extra practice practices rooms, there was no
decoration around the room but all the instruments, stands and musical related objects that a band room has,
there was enough music stimulation. The teacher is a young person that still willing to learn, hes very enthusiastic
about the students, development and learning process, hes been working at the school for 2 years and still tying
to create a great curriculum that benefits his students. The school has set different studios for different types of
arts, which shows that they have an art friendly environment which gives students the opportunity to explore as
well as fell comfortable about learning new things and this is reflected in their learning and development
The teacher does fundraiser and an end of the year project, he also does a couple of concert throughout the school
year, so he tries to get the children to be prepared for this events, the teacher wants them to be able to work as a
group but he also wants them to be technically prepared so he also spends a portion of the time working on this
area.
The teacher separates all the students by instrument so that they can practice each section. He takes the students

What teaching/rehearsal strategies to be responsible for each of their parts, he goes around to every room to check up on what theyre doing and how
did you see? What was the
they are doing it, then they makes them get together as an ensemble and play what they practiced before.
learning sequence?
The classroom

I would be more preparate for the students, maybe know the piece that their playing better so I can explain the

What would you do differently?

meaning of the music and how to played correctly
What was missing from the lesson?

What evidence did you observe

that would indicate that the
learning goals were met?

When we meet the students we asked them to play some scale and some chords together, so that we could see
their level and hear their sound and also, to know how familiar they really were with their instrument. They all
know the scales we were asking for, we could appreciate their nice sound, also a good technique and posture to
play an instrument. We noticed that they were also familiarized with some theory basics and they had a good
understanding of the rhythm, and dynamics.

What National Standards did you

see?

Development skills, techniques, and processes in the arts strengthen our ability to remember focus on, process,
and sequence information (M.U.68.S.2).
Understanding music in relation to history and culture

How did students engage in the

classroom? What was happening
at the time when students were
really focused?

The students were very independent, they basically knew what to do though they still need guidance because as
we know we are all constantly learning, they were also very mature when it comes to listening to someone else
and specially when its someone they know can help them and teach them things they dont know, they were very
disciplined, they know how to follow instructions and they were all very eager to learn.

Describe a "teachable moment"

that you might have witnessed.

One teachable moment that I witnessed was when the teacher got into our room and asked us about some
saxophone techniques that he needed to know for the piece that the students were practicing, you dont see this
kind of behaviors in many teachers, he is willing to learn every day because he wants to be able to teach the
students more, and he wants to improve and grow in order to make his class and curriculum better for his students

What constructive comments might you make about this lesson/rehearsal?

What is your overall assessment of this teacher, the students and the lesson/rehearsal?