I had another good week of student teaching! It's starting to dawn on me that it is almost over.. And when it's over, I'm done with college! I am also going to start applying for jobs. How crazy is that?!
Halloween was a lot of fun, and the students all looked so cute!! My favorite costumes that I saw the students wearing were a piñata and Mushu from Mulan (my favorite Disney movie). There was a Halloween parade so all of the students could see each other's costumes. All of the teachers dressed up too, and it was so fun! I was Cat in the Hat. (I am really proud of myself because I made pretty much the whole thing!)
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Since I've started at Tyler, there has been one or two days where my teacher and I have looked back and thought, "We just did not get much done today." It's not that we just sat around and did nothing. Things came up. There were meltdowns by students, things took longer than expected, and the hours slipped away from us too quickly.
The scheduling in my classroom is pretty crazy, and we are changing groups every 25-30 minutes. I was teaching math to the first graders, and half way through the lesson I was like, "Ok! First graders: time to go to lunch! Second graders: time for Music! Third graders: bring your Language Arts to the back table!" When I don't finish the whole lesson, I can't continue to teach it because they usually have to go somewhere or it is time to teach another grade. I can't get over how important it is to transition quickly. If the transition from one thing to another takes 10 minutes, then there is only 15 minutes to teach a lesson.
But anyways, when I have unproductive days with my students, it is important to pinpoint the problem. I need to know why we didn't get much done because that will help to avoid those problems in the future. My cooperating teacher has stressed the importance of reflection, especially on days like those. According to the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards, "The competent teacher understands that reflection is an integral part of professional growth and improvement of instruction" (10A). Reflecting on how the school day went will help me grow as a teacher, and it will greatly benefit my students.
I think that because I care for my students so much, I want them to get the most out of their time at school, and that is why I don't like to have days where we don't get much done. I have witnessed some teachers being okay with an unproductive day as long as the students stay out of trouble. I think that it is extremely important that my students are constantly learning, and they will continue to learn if I can make the most out of each day I have with them.
Melaine,
ReplyDeleteGood reflection today. It sounds like your Halloween events were fun. I loved your costume. Good job on making it too!
It sounds like the realities of teaching and time are hitting you full-on. I'm glad that you are using reflection as a way to think about lessons learned, etc.
I have a question for you. How does your faith impact what you do in the classroom? Give that some thought. Maybe you can put that in this week's post.
Have a great week.
Dr. Meyer
Hi Mel,
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about the unproductive days. Luckily I have been in placements where my teachers were always over preparing for the day and always had extra work on hand just in case. Although I currently am working with high school students I find that occasionally offering an extra credit word search or crossword really engages them. This is especially great if they did not do well on a test that day. It is interesting the differences I have read about your placements, and it seems you are learning from both the good and bad. We're halfway through!!!