Now that we are half-way into your student teaching practicum, I want you to reflect one last time on your experiences as a student-turned-teacher. The expectations will be the same as before--you write a post one week and comment on each other's the next week.
I continue to learn a lot about myself as I continue with this experience. Today, I had so much fun with one of my classes. I asked them to act out scenes from The Great Gatsby and they all did an excellent job. I am seeing more and more how much "fun" has to do with teaching. I am happiest when I am laughing with my students and enjoying them. I know that things won't always be sunshine and roses, but I think that if you can create an enjoyable environment for your students, they will generally behave. When they're engaged, there isn't time to act up. I certainly have not mastered this idea, but I will keep trying to make my classes upbeat.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have experienced the difference between a class period where I am in a better or worse mood. I did not notice it at first, but my supervising teacher pointed this out to me. I had such different results after teaching the same lesson twice in a row and was baffled as to why one class was amazing and the other apathetic. My supervising teacher later pointed out to me that my tone of voice and overall stance was much more confident and positive the second time around, that was why the lesson went so differently. The first class caught me off guard a bit, I was rushed and did not have all of my materials ready, so that was reflected in how the lesson went. The second time around, I had taught the lesson once before, so was more prepared and confident to teach it again. This made a huge difference in the way my lesson went. So what I am trying to do now is always be prepared and confident, even when it is my first time giving a lesson!
DeleteI think this was something that we discussed in class the day that the principals from West Lafayette and Tecumseh came to visit. One of them mentioned that if you are asked in an interview how you will handle discipline problems, the correct response should be something about having less problems if students are engaged. Of course you will never have a perfect class all year, but if the students have something to work on that they enjoy, hopefully they will not be acting out. I have several students who are always finished early with their assignments, so I try to have an extension planned for every single day. Otherwise, I know those students who are finished will be a distraction for those who are still working.
DeleteYes, the worse my mood is the worse a class period goes! However, I have noticed sometimes I get my students too riled up with conversation or funny stories and it's hard to reel them back in.
DeleteSpeaking of the reeling them back in, this may just be a middle school thing, but I will physically act like I'm reeling them in sometimes and tell them, "Okay, let's reel it in." The hand gestures and allowing them to slowly wind down their conversation feels better and more natural for me rather than shouting. Obviously, if they don't start winding down I do yell but usually don't have to. I think they like the reel a little better too. Sometimes my teacher will shout right after I start getting them to quiet down and it makes the class feel a bit awkward. I think sometimes an extremely authoritative yell is necessary, other times it just ruins the class vibe, for me at least.
Spring break has definitely gotten me into "teacher mode," and quite honestly it's one of the most difficult adjustments to make. My spring break is revolving around my students and school still, which I'm sure is how it's supposed to be. I'm filling out applications (which is extremely scary) and helping students strengthen their research papers through Google Docs. In addition to that, I've been working on planning two new units.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I'm sure that's how it's supposed to be, and I guess this is all just part of the student turned teacher process. I'm enjoying my time in the classroom, and I've come to realize that I'm really going to miss my students when the time comes to end my student teaching. It's amazing to learn about each of the kids: get to know their personalities, how they work, what motivates them. And although there are bad days every now and then, those day when none of my students are motivated to do anything, they backtalk, and they push all of my buttons (basically the whole week before spring break), I keep those awesome days in the back of my mind for safe keeping. This past week, my AP class had a great conversation discussing different aspect of Romeo and Juliet, and they went above and beyond what I expected. They thought outside of the box and gave a thorough examination of each question. I even prompted more questions and they discussed and debated those as well. It's classes like those that I keep in the back of my mind, and they make me feel like what I've been doing has really been worthwhile.
It is still a bit odd transitioning from student to teacher. I want to be seen as a figure of authority in the classroom, but I am still not sure how to achieve that goal. My students seem to like me, but I still have a hard time getting them in control when I need them to be. I have had my share of bad days, and sometimes it is hard to let go of the bad feelings towards a class/student who have been routinely misbehaving. I know that it is impossible for the students to have fun and be engaged if I am not having fun and engaged, so I try to keep that in mind even when some students are off-track from where I need them to be. This seems like a jumble of random thoughts, and that is really how student teaching has been for me. I am having a hard time processing everything and making it all coherent because so much is happening all at once.
ReplyDeleteI believe on the last blog post, Julia or someone else commented on their mood effecting their ability to teach. This has been something I have had to confront over the past week. I've been extremely busy in and outside of class, my car broke down and everything that could go wrong, seems like it has been. All of these elements combined left me feeling particularly tired and irritable. My students were not necessarily acting different, I was just less patient. I noticed this fairly quickly, and I know my students did too. As hard as it was, I forced myself to quickly change my tone, which I'm sure made me appear bi-polar, but it could be worse. I noticed how much better my second period class went, and it was only because I changed my demeanor. Lack of preparation, disinterest in a lesson and your general mood are without a doubt things that students notice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Julia when she says that it can be hard to keep the class under control. I hate yelling and I can tell already that this won't be my style. I am finding that guilt works wonders. If I say that they are being rude, that seems to do the trick. Luckily, they respect me so therefore do not want to hurt my feelings. So, when I say that they're being rude to me or other classmates by talking, they quiet down. Of course, I would never say this to one student-I say it to the class as a whole. I remind them that they wouldn't want someone talking while they are talking.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I am starting to grade research papers. Wow, it is rough. I am shocked by some of these papers and not in a good way. My teacher is amazing and is helping me with the process. We talk about what to focus on, how to grade, and what suggestions to give. I am taking my time because it is very overwhelming to tackle them all at once. It is so interesting seeing what each student has to say and how they say it. I enjoy the papers yet I also can't help but wonder how these kids made it this far in their educational careers without fixing these issues. Grammar, sentence structure, punctuation-you name it and I have seen something crazy in these papers and I have only gotten through one class out of four.
You mentioning those research papers makes me extremely nervous. I will soon be collecting my own research papers to grade, and I hate the idea of grading somebody on an assignment this big. I feel like teachers should thrive on those opportunities, but maybe it's still too fresh to have that feeling of fear as an instructor returned a paper. While I haven't received the papers yet, I have been able to work with students and interact with their papers considering we have been doing most of the writing process in class. I can already tell that I won't necessarily be ecstatic about their writing, and I too have wondered how they have made it this far in their educational experiences. As mean (and un-teacher like) as this may sound, they do not know anything, nor are they motivated to learn how to do it. Forget works cited and citations. Don't bother with MLA format! These papers will be interesting for sure.
DeleteSpeaking of grading their papers, I feel as though I've been lowering my own grading standards. Students are doing average work just to get by, and while it's annoying, it's not really a battle I'm willing to fight. I'd rather set a generous curve than fail all of my students, which I'm sure would not go over well with the school or my teacher. While I don't feel that they deserve all of the points, their mode is often so much lower than what's expected that that is what ends up happening. I'm not sure if that's exactly "correct" of me to do, but it's an insecurity of mine.
And thanks to your suggestion Zarah, I think I might start guilting my students as well! They aren't disrespectful to me directly, but they often talk over my directions as well as the other students. I ask them multiple times to quiet down, and in various ways, but later on they'll continue their conversations with a louder volume. I think I might just go with "You're being extremely rude right now" and see where that gets me with my classes. Thanks!
I'm very sorry for being so late with this blog and commenting! I've been sick for over a week now and was sick not too long before that, so my brain has been having a hard time keeping up with everything. My student teaching experience has been going kind of amazingly though! I have an entirely new confidence when giving students instructions or lecturing when I have to. I used to have to plan out every little thing I was going to say or point out to the students. Now, I have a sense of ease that makes me feel like I'm really coming into my own as a teacher.
ReplyDeleteI really am going to miss my students and am trying to think of something to give them as a good-bye present. Most of the students have never even had my cooperating teacher as a teacher (we only get them for 9 weeks at a time if you didn't know), so they only know me as their teacher, and that makes it even more difficult to hand the classroom back over to her.
Overall though, I'm feeling much more confident. Obviously, I have a ton more to learn and will probably never stop learning new teaching methods. But I think I have finally, as of last week, bridged the gap between my student self and teacher self and now am mostly standing on the teacher side of things. However, I do still have a foot over on the student side. When they look bored with a lesson I try to think of how they might find it more interesting because I remember being in middle school once and falling asleep during boring grammar lessons. . . So I try not to get frustrated by that because, really, even when I try to show them funny animal videos and use my awesome prezis, I know at the core of it, grammar is not interesting to 99.9% of the human population.