Max CO #1

I first observed Alexandra Ramos's 3C listening class on 3/5/2014. I found her to be very heartfelt to her students. She exhibited an extraordinary amount of compassion for her students in an almost motherly way. I brought the "things to keep in mind while observing classes" sheet with me and responded to those questions as I was in class.
She took attendance through Engrade, the same software used in our TEFL course. They did not speak any other languages throughout the class. However, some Israeli students did speak another language to each other before the class formally began. The students did seem passionate to be there, but they did joke around quite a bit. Alexandras teaching style was very mobile, and she frequently paced and walked around while talking, including writing on both white boards while teaching. The majority of the class time was spent relistening to a listening activity where a professor spoke in quite depth about learning disorders. I learned two words myself which she wrote on the board during the activity, dyscalculia- learning disabilities related to math, and dysgraphia- learning disabilities related to writing. After each listen, students took notes, and reviewed their notes with each other in small groups, then she reviewed the groups notes after that.

At one point during a lull in the classrooms activities, two students spoke in their native tongue to eachother and Alexandra instructed them not to, which she said wasn't because she didn't want to hear their "beautiful language" but because she wanted their English to improve. I thought that was a very helpful kind way of disciplining them.
I did notice Ali, the blind CIES student, and I was very impressed with his ability to stay up with the classes progress. He would type his notes from the lecture into his laptop, and his laptop read back his words to him through his headphones.
Overall it was a very good class and I was quite impressed with it.