Peer Observation

Observing Nicole McKamey – Kapa‘a High School

Being from Kaua‘i, this was actually my first time visiting Kapa‘a High School and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. When I was about to graduate from receiving my Bachelors in Education, Kapa‘a High School’s principal called me to offer an interview but had to deny because I already got hired from Waipahu High School. It was very interesting to visit the school and how different it is from Waipahu. First, the school is walking distance to the ocean and my cousins also attend the school and it was amazing to see one of them during lunch! When I first got to the school, I noticed that the bell was actually a song and I thought that it was a very great way to transition to different class periods.

The classes that I was able to observe Nicole in was her two physical science classes, which is the freshman science class. To start out the lesson, Nicole asked the students probing questions in order to introduce Forces. She used a PowerPoint to talk about forces and had the students draw a boat and label the forces onto their notes. This allowed the students to pay attention to the first part of the PowerPoint, but it did get difficult to read. When this happened, she started to write on the board which allowed the students to follow her with the notes and take them easier.

After the PowerPoint presentation, the students worked on their VoiceThread for their Engineering Boat part of the project. There were enough laptops for the students to each have their own, which is such a great resource. She walked around the students to individually help them with the use of their technology. The students also needed to use Google Maps in order to pin the points where their ancestors were from. The purpose of research their ancestors was to find and research boats that their ancestors could have used in the past.

The entire lesson had Nicole teaching the first part and then facilitating the students in the second half of the class period so that the students are able to work on their projects. I could tell that the lesson was based off of physical science standards by going over the different types of forces involved with the motion of a boat and allowing the students to individually work on their projects allows them to provide space for their ideas and opinions. I do feel that their ideas and opinions could have been brought up more when she was talking about forces, but still love that they needed to drop the boat.

I really liked her students’ use of technology and the ancestral part of the lesson, very awesome. I could also see her lesson taken to a new level by adding GIS programs in order to pin where their ancestors are from. In order to check for assessment, Nicole would ask the students to show whether they understood by the show of their thumbs. All students participated in showing their thumbs, however, she didn’t really address their responses too much. She also asked the students questions in order to check for assessment, but sometimes the same students would respond. After her lesson, we debriefed on what she did well and the things that she could improve on. The lesson was great, it’s just that the students did have a hard time paying attention to her and a lot of them were off task. I helped her and walked around and that was better, so I gave her advice on how to help with the classroom management.


Observed by Nicole McKamey at Waipahu High School

Nicole came to see me for the entire day and was able to observe my introduction to engineering, integrated science, and physics classes. Panda also came to observe with Nicole, which I and the students seemed to enjoy because they don’t get too many visitors. The lesson that they were able to see that related to my Plan B was the prototype testing for their wa‘a. At the beginning of the lesson, I introduced the students to the anemometers and we got to talking about measuring speed and acceleration. Then the students got their wa‘a ready and then we went outside to test and get used to the anemometers. We then went inside to test the students’ single and double-hulled wa‘a and during the process, the students gave verbal suggestions to improve each other’s wa‘a. To wrap up the lesson, they did a written reflection on what they learned and worked with their groups to redesign their wa‘a as needed.

Nicole and I reflected on the strengths of the lesson and we both liked that I took the students outside to experience technology. While we were outside, I also talked about how the wind direction changed and asked the students questions about which direction does the wind usually come from and how they could tell if it’s kona winds or trade winds. One student actually mentioned that it’s kona winds when the room stinks because of the dumpster south of my room and the wind blows the stink smell inside. This was such a great observation that the student made and I was very impressed with him. She also liked that I had the students tell each other how to improve their wa‘a, I never gave them one answer, I just waited until the students responded. Nicole would even be tempted to answer my questions for the students but she knew to not.



When I was talking with the students about the difference between velocity and acceleration, it did take them a while to catch on. I showed the students the units and the mathematical equations involved, however, it was suggested that instead I could visually show the students the actual difference with the timing between the two concepts. I also realized that since a few of the freshmen were excited that they had visitors, they were a lot more energetic and I needed the students to refocus their energy to project a lot. However, I think that overall it went well and I do wish that the advisors were able to see it but that’s okay J You can read about it in Nicole’s observation.