First week with students
August 25, 2008
Today was my first day with students. The entire time leading up to our first day, I had no fears going into student teaching. But as soon as the students came in, I started to sink in my seat hoped to just “observe” for the day. I helped greet students at the door and give them a worksheet to fill out. Mrs. Tempesta taught the entire first period. I observed and walked around and helped as the students were working. For the second and third block, I introduced one of the activities. This was a nice way to slowly be eased into talking in front of the class.
Part of the nerves came from feeling pressure to do well classroom management-wise. The expectation as well as necessity to do well is even greater than ever for me. In practicum, though I was being observed, I would usually never have to get in front of classes again. If I screwed up, then at least it was just one isolated event and would be over at the end of the lesson. When I subbed, same thing. Even if the class got out of control, once they left for the day, I never had to deal with it again. Today, I knew that if I messed something up, I would need to fix it. I was okay starting out, stuttered and got tongue-tied here and there, but as the day went on I was able to learn from my mistakes. There is still a great deal of room for improvement (of course), but I think awareness of your weaknesses is half the battle. Once you know them, you can begin to improve upon them.
August 27, 2008
The past few days have been filled with first week housekeeping and chaos, but overall have been great. While the prep for only one class is nice, teaching the same thing six time does get a bit mundane. However, it has worked will working cooperatively with my CT as she would start by teaching A1, and then as I felt comfortable, I would take over parts of the lesson. By B8, I was teaching about 80% of the class at that point. Today was a new lesson in which we got into the syllabus and began the content. This time around, I have observed for the most part as my CT should really be the one to go over the syllabus and I was not comfortable with the content not researching it myself. I helped students as they did their group work however, so I did in fact get to move around the classroom.
Some lessons I have learned today on the "right" way to start your day:
1. 1. Being early is imperative. Not on time, early. I had a late start this morning and I did get to school by 7:15am, but that still made me feel rushed and I just felt off my game for all of A1.
2. 2. Breakfast is an always meal. I have overlooked breakfast over the years, either not having the time or just on account of not being hungry when I woke up. However, this morning I skipped breakfast and about 45 minutes into first block, I was feeling myself feeling the effects. This left my focus on my hunger, not allowing me to devout my undivided attention on the students and their needs. The expression “put your best foot forward” never rang true more than this morning on account of these past two lessons.
Today was my first day with students. The entire time leading up to our first day, I had no fears going into student teaching. But as soon as the students came in, I started to sink in my seat hoped to just “observe” for the day. I helped greet students at the door and give them a worksheet to fill out. Mrs. Tempesta taught the entire first period. I observed and walked around and helped as the students were working. For the second and third block, I introduced one of the activities. This was a nice way to slowly be eased into talking in front of the class.
Part of the nerves came from feeling pressure to do well classroom management-wise. The expectation as well as necessity to do well is even greater than ever for me. In practicum, though I was being observed, I would usually never have to get in front of classes again. If I screwed up, then at least it was just one isolated event and would be over at the end of the lesson. When I subbed, same thing. Even if the class got out of control, once they left for the day, I never had to deal with it again. Today, I knew that if I messed something up, I would need to fix it. I was okay starting out, stuttered and got tongue-tied here and there, but as the day went on I was able to learn from my mistakes. There is still a great deal of room for improvement (of course), but I think awareness of your weaknesses is half the battle. Once you know them, you can begin to improve upon them.
August 27, 2008
The past few days have been filled with first week housekeeping and chaos, but overall have been great. While the prep for only one class is nice, teaching the same thing six time does get a bit mundane. However, it has worked will working cooperatively with my CT as she would start by teaching A1, and then as I felt comfortable, I would take over parts of the lesson. By B8, I was teaching about 80% of the class at that point. Today was a new lesson in which we got into the syllabus and began the content. This time around, I have observed for the most part as my CT should really be the one to go over the syllabus and I was not comfortable with the content not researching it myself. I helped students as they did their group work however, so I did in fact get to move around the classroom.
Some lessons I have learned today on the "right" way to start your day:
1. 1. Being early is imperative. Not on time, early. I had a late start this morning and I did get to school by 7:15am, but that still made me feel rushed and I just felt off my game for all of A1.
2. 2. Breakfast is an always meal. I have overlooked breakfast over the years, either not having the time or just on account of not being hungry when I woke up. However, this morning I skipped breakfast and about 45 minutes into first block, I was feeling myself feeling the effects. This left my focus on my hunger, not allowing me to devout my undivided attention on the students and their needs. The expression “put your best foot forward” never rang true more than this morning on account of these past two lessons.