Today I had my first experience teaching any of the curriculum. My cooperating teacher and I split the lesson and the students in half for science. Jane taught the first part of the lesson and got the students into groups. Then we each worked with four groups of students for the hands on portion. After the students did their experiments, the class came back together and I got to lead the discussion and summary portion. The students were very excited during science and got off task many times. There were some behavior issues that needed to be addressed during the portion of the lesson I was teaching. I wrote in my last post that I wanted to be more confident in my behavior management and I think I was able to practice today. I was able to remain confident when leading the lesson even though there were times I was a little frustrated and nervous about students not listening. I was able to address the behavior issues and remain direct and firm as well. Thinking back on the lesson there were some things I would do differently, but I learned from the experience and now I will be more prepared for next time.
I was also able to lead the morning meeting again today and use some of the feedback I got from my cooperating teacher last week. One goal I have is to continue to work on developing and practicing different classroom management procedures, phrases, and techniques. I would like to get more and more comfortable with this so I can focus on my lessons and student learning. I would also like to practice developing and asking good questions during lessons.
Good morning! It's great to hear that you're getting some "real" teaching experiences and that you and Jane are experimenting with different forms of co-teaching. I wonder what your science lesson was about--I remember that setting up for science was always a big production because there was equipment to prepare, procedures to run through, kids to keep focused while they heard directions. Whew!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you don't need this reminder, but the only way to get better at classroom management is to practice classroom management. Feeling more confident each day, and keeping track of techniques you've tried, those that worked, and those you want to implement is a great reflective strategy for improvement. I'm looking forward to my visit on Tuesday.
Also, thank you for responding to my questions on earlier prompts. The details help me get a better mental picture of how your classroom is running. I forgot that Jane uses a bell system, which I think is a respectful way to signal to kids that it's time to re-focus, transition, listen--whatever it is you need them to do.
Thanks again for the follow up.