Sorry! I was a day ahead yesterday. I wrote the blog post for Wednesday on Tuesday and today when I went to school I thought it was Thursday already. I think I have it straight now...:)
Now I will follow the prompt from Tuesday!
Today, my third day in middle school, I got to teach for two class periods. I didn't really get to teach a new math concept because students have not started their new books yet, but I got to lead some activities. Students were cleaning out their math binders today, reorganizing the materials and creating their math portfolios. They also got new textbooks today. For two of the class periods I got to guide students through all of those processes. I watched Zoe teach for two hours and then I just decide to give it a try. I was sort of nervous at first because the student were older and I was not sure exactly what classroom management techniques would work with them. I was surprised at how certain management phrases and techniques came back to me and were more natural to me than when I first started teaching in 4th grade. I was able to feel pretty comfortable teaching the students right away. Actually, I was able to use a lot of the management techniques I used when teaching 4th grade science.There were so many supplies and directions that I needed to give when teaching science and there were also a lot of directions and supplies today. I was glad that I spent so much time teaching science and learning how to manage supplies and activities! The students are a little chatty, but for the most part they are really nice middle school students. I am enjoying this age group so far. The students are fun to talk with and Zoe seems to have a really good relationship with them. Tomorrow I am going to introduce an algebra game to them.
I was happy to read about your successful "solo" experiences yesterday. What you're describing about the effective use of 4th grade strategies in 7th grade makes me think that there are some aspects of teaching that are like muscles. Here's my analogy: In the gym, you do bicep curls (the gym is like your coursework at St. Kate's where you exercised your teaching muscles), then those muscles come in handy when you're carrying groceries in to your house (management techniques in 4th grade) AND when you're raking leaves in the yard (management techniques in 7th grade). Once you've trained for a while and built up strength, you can use those muscles in multiple contexts with equal effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteHow do you like that analogy?
I'm looking forward to visiting next week!