It may be important to observe a child but at the same time it may mislead you into being judgmental, to soon. For instance, if you observe a child misbehaving, not getting along with the other children or talking back to the teacher, you might get the impression that he/she is a "bad" child and you might treat and act differently with that particular child.
From my personal experiences, I have to come to the conclusion that it doesn't always work the way I believe when observing a child. I strongly feel that in order to get to know a child you should not spend most of your time observing him/her. Interacting with the child gives off better results. Not once or twice, this should be a consistent thing.
For example, in room seven we have a child by the name of Thomas which most of us have heard about him. He appears to be very aggressive and angry from what we have observed. Even though the child may be difficult at times, I cannot turn my back on him and give up because of this. We can only observe what lies in front of us. No one really knows what goes on when the child is home with his parents. He might be going through some really hard times with his family and this is how he is coping with it but, we really don't know and that is why it is very important to ask questions and speak to the child because your observations many.
At the daycare, I try not to let my observations take over a situation. If I see hit Gaspar rather then jump to conclusions and scold Vincent, I talk to the both of them and ask questions, like, "Why did you hit him?" "What made you so angry that you felt you had to hit him?" "How did that make you feel?" so on and so forth.
Observations are very important but