Awareness or Observance?

As I reread my last post, and the comments, I decided that awareness and observation were not exactly synonymous.  In fact, in my computer's thesaurus, they are not listed that way.

I think all successful teachers have to have a high level of awareness about what is happening in their classrooms.  In fact I remember a "busy" third grader asking me--with real sincerity--if I had eyes in the back of my head.  

Observation, at least to my mind, is different.  While I knew what the students were doing and where the trouble spots were likely to be, I'm not certain I could have accurately described their facial features to a sketch artist.   I mean, I noticed new haircuts or stylish new outfits, or glasses traded for contacts.  Unless they said something, I may not have noticed when someone got braces or got theirs taken off (6th grade is full of metal and I never had fewer than 26 students),  but I do not remember paying attention to the the shape of their eyes or lengths of earlobes.  To sit down and accurately describe the distance between eyes, eyebrow shapes, or length of a nose....I don't know.  Round face, thin face, tall, short, skinny, stocky, dark, fair--that's about the extent of my physical observation skills.

But, maybe I was looking beyond what they "looked like" to what they might be thinking and doing.   While I couldn't have given a good sketch artist what he needed, I could have accurately described the students' reading, writing, and math skills.  I could have described  their interests, habits, and attitudes about school.  Perhaps I was simply aware of the things that mattered most to me.  

 To my thinking, observation is surface information.  Awareness is  more of an understanding.  I doubt that's what dictionaries would say, and that still doesn't explain why so many people miss the gorilla.