Watching Myself in my Students' Eyes

This morning as I watched my intern from a far I sat and listened to her teach a small group of students. Trying to stay invisible from my post I glanced around the room at two girls sitting close to me. Thinking to myself I wondered why they weren't at their workstation, why did they feel like they didn't need to follow routines. Grunting at their lack of focus I got up to go ask them to do what they were supposed to be doing! As I approached the two I quickly noticed one girl who was covering the text of a book. As she covered the text she asked the second girl, "what text can you predict will be on this page?" The student replied with a very good inference and the little girl said, "very good, you made a very good inference. What evidence did you use to help you come up with that inference?" Together the two girls practiced what we have been doing in our independent workshop! I walked back to my invisible spot and observed both my interns lesson and the lessons these two girls were learning together.
You know sometimes I have self doubt. Sometimes I think they aren't "getting it." Sometimes I wonder if it is really as useful as the research proves to me. And then I have moments like today, when I get to watch myself through my student's eyes...