Impromptu Observations

During my release time today, I was supposed to be completing our weekly plan for next week. However as I sat in the class sorting out what I needed etc, I became aware of an amazing lesson going on right before my eyes. I instantly started recording notes, unbeknown to the teacher (my mentor, Archana). Of course she figured out that I was observing her when I quickly went and took photos of the whiteboard, kept typing while she spoke and didn't appear to be doing any planning haha! But wow, the results were amazing!

The focus I chose was seeing how many times the teacher either used talk moves, or praised the students, and in what way. See for yourself... (hint: I have highlighted the key pieces.)

As you can see, there was soo much rich use of talk moves, maths language and positive behaviour reinforcement used by the teacher in this hour session. The more I analysed the results, the more it made me think about what kind of things I say to the students...

(I have taken the actual observation out of this post for privacy reasons, as it contains personal information about students including their names.)

I want to note that I don't want to replicate what my mentor teacher has done, as I am my own person and not a clone of her, however wonderful she may be. My point is, that maybe I need to watch what I say to the students, and how I am saying it. How can I get the same level of engagement and excitement about maths?  Do I refer to our class treaty that much? Do I build them up just for trying that much? Do I connect with them on a personal level, still in whole class situations? If not, how can I? How can I set such a tone for the love of learning?