Classroom Walkthroughs

Today I carried out a few classroom walkthroughs.  Classroom walkthroughs are opportunities for school leaders to get a feel for how things are going in individual classes in a snap shot.  They are a systematic and efficient way to gather data on instructional practices throughout the school.
Prior to visits, Rhonda (our Principal) decided what specific areas we were going to be looking at across the school and a template for the observations was created.  I spent 15 minutes in each room of one syndicate.  Having the identified focus areas, it was easy to settle straight in and begin logging what I was seeing. 
The first area of focus was classroom environments.  What I straight away recognised was that each room had text rich environments.  There were similar threads of displays across the syndicate with word walls, literacy cycles, maths stages and expectations, learning levels and culturally responsive work on all the walls.  All environments were warm and reflected a classroom culture of learning.  I did make note in some rooms, that student input could be increased, as it's important to show student voice to give chidlren a sense of ownership of the space they are in.

The second area of focus was engagement.  In each room, I was thrilled to see genuine engagement of students working in a variety of situations.  There were groups working with their teacher, others working with TAs, some working with a buddy and some independently.  In the classes carrying out math activities, there was student discourse around problem solving and teachers carrying out guided math lessons with developing student led lessons.  There is still some way to go in some rooms around student led learning, but there is evidence of progress made on this front, by teachers as well as students. 
The final area of focus was around digital learning and this was the obvious first default for learning and recording across the syndicate.  Students could show me the class site where they access their activities and shared their learning confidently with me.  They could explain what they are learning, how the activity ties to their recent learning, the purpose behind what they are learning and what their next learning steps are.  Each class reflects a fully digital learning environment, but the devices were obviously used as 'tools' in the learning.  There was still a definite sense of learner centered learning happening in the rooms. 
Walkthroughs are a valuable tool to school leaders and something recommended as a way for school leaders to give teachers feedback for reflection on their practice.  There are number of interesting articles around 'walkthroughs', google it for more information.