Clinical Cycle - Post Conference Analysis

Post-observation conference consisted of the principal, teacher, and myself meeting in the principal’s office, sitting at a conference table within the office. The teacher sat in between principal and myself. The conference began with the principal describing the lesson. While describing what she observed, she used a calm voice and made eye contact with the teacher. After the principal provided her feedback, I was able to provide mine.

When I discussed my observations with the teacher, I maintained eye contact and talked with my hands throughout the discussion. The tone of my voice stayed consistent and I thought my enunciation and pronunciation was good. There was one point during the discussion that I stumbled over my words and had to refer back to my notes. Overall, I thought the delivery of what I observed from the lesson was okay. One area in which I need to improve is the seriousness of my delivery. I felt I was too serious and needed to relax a little. Having a serious tone during the delivery could turn teachers away from the observation cycle. I also used a lot of “ums” and hand gestures, which I thought was distracting.

During the conference I was able to specify actions that the teacher did during the lesson that I thought were strong. For example, “encouraging students to ask questions of each other”. I provided several other strengths I observed and two areas in which I though she could improve. I did not use the student’s name when referring to students; I am unfamiliar with her class. We did review student data together and it was evident that all students mastered the lesson’s objective based on the assessment.

When discussing the observation with the teacher I did not refer back to the prior conversations we had regarding her areas of need. I wrote about it in my write up but did not address it when speaking to the teacher. I do think I used an appropriate style of talking with the teacher. After reviewing the tape, I thought I was talking more at her than with her. I also did not ask the teacher any questions. The teacher did not actually say anything during the discussion. She only shook her head in agreement. I did have questions prepared but did not follow through with asking them. This made the conference very one-sided and not a dialogue between the teacher and me.


Overall, I thought the post conference was not successful. I used a direct approach with this teacher and it was not necessary. She is a strong teacher and the approach should have been a collaborative effort of what she believed happened and what I observed. Then together we could decide the best way for her to improve.


I believe I was overcome with nervousness of having the principal in the room and being video taped. I did not refer back to my notes when it was my turn to talk with the teacher. I feel that I needed to make the post-conference more of a dialogue and less of a “presentation”. I also think part of what I did was based on what I know. None of my post-observations from the past have been a dialogue. I cannot wait until I am able to conduct another clinical cycle so I can improve this part of the process.