I realize that it's been quite some time since I've posted; with taking six classes, TA-ing Monday-Friday, and working four jobs I'm pretty much using more time than I even have available. Plus! This past week I began my unit with 2nd hour on Monday and 3rd hour on Thursday. After hardly sleeping through the night Sunday night, I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for my lesson with second hour (mind you this is sarcastic and I was actually terrified). I've learned that all my past experience with kids babysitting, nannying, and tutoring has really helped make me feel comfortable being in front of the kids and I find that what I most worry about is how much influence I have over these young minds. It's absolutely terrifying how some students hang on nearly every word I say and how much influence I have over their lives and minds; but this is also an absolutely amazing feeling. I cannot put into words how amazing this week was for me, every day I love teaching more. People always say that it's the "ahhh-haa" moments that are some of the most memorable and rewarding and after hearing my students have these moments this week I have to agree with them. It truly gives me butterflies to hear my students say "ohhhhhh! That makes so much sense now!". And just the fact that in my first week of teaching I was able to give many students moments like this is just mind blowing (I can't help but be a little proud of myself).
That being said, this does NOT mean that the week went flawlessly. Monday and Tuesday went very very well, and this was a big bonus seeing as Tuesday I was observed by the College of Ed. Needless to say, I was more nervous/terrified going in to teach Tuesday than I was Monday. But I also came out of Tuesday with more confirmation that this exactly where I'm suppose to be right now and I'm doing exactly what I'm suppose to be doing. The first thing my COE coordinator said to me in our meeting after my lesson was, "You're going to make a great teacher". Just hearing that from someone who's been in the profession for so long was so great and encouraging. I'm so hard on myself when it comes to my teaching that I can convince myself of things being much more terrible than they actually are. I ended up getting a voice mail from my coordinator later in the day telling me how great my lesson was again, and saying he couldn't get my lesson out of his head. Isn't that what we want from our "students" and ourselves? Our lessons to be so great that our students go home and talk about them to their parents or apply them to aspects outside of our classroom...
What made Tuesday even better was how great the students were and how receptive they (typically) are to the lessons I give. They're so willing to learn and interact with me and are not afraid to ask questions and I really can't ask for a better group of students to try out all my crazy activities on and begin my teaching career.
After Tuesday's lesson came Wednesday lesson; which I went into knowing I had a TON of material to cover and fingers crossed I'd have time to cover it all. Sadly, that lesson didn't go as smoothly as Tuesday's and because I spent majority of the period covering the beginning vocab, this left little time at the end of the lesson for the more complicated portion of the section. I only had a few minutes left in the period and quickly gave a simple example of the end material with little explanation. This proved to be fatal mistake. I knew at the end of that lesson that students were NOT comfortable with the material and did not come away from that lesson with an understanding of what I wanted them to. This is where the idea that teachers need to be 'flexible' came into play. I decided that what was best for my students was to recover the material (mostly the end of the lesson) again the next class period and give them two days to do the homework. It was when I was giving the lesson for a second time that I had nearly every student saying "Ohhhhhhhh! I get it now!" and though it was frustrating for students to be so confused on the homework assignment and lesson initially and it was frustrating for me that I was unable to give a clear, precise, and involving lesson the first time around this really was a good learning experience about being flexible when lesson planning. Being able to cover the material a second time, a day later, was also really helpful for me to get an understanding of where my students got tripped up and come up with a different way to present the material.
Moral of the story: though a lesson might strike out the first time it's presented, this is an important step in the learning process of becoming a teacher and it's important that we're able to be flexible and pay attention to our students needs. You never know, the same material presented in a different way might just be a home run the next time around.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Setting Goals
The past two days teacher assisting have passed in a whirl wind of review games and tests. Since our CT was gone this week it was up to us to lead the class for the two hours that we're there. This proved to be a bit more taxing than I initially thought it would be. We started the class by telling student when we needed their attention instead of yelling or counting down like most teachers do we would raise our hands and say "raise your hand if you can hear me", the students responded really well to this and would quiet down relatively quickly after we did this. This didn't matter when it came to reigning the students in before the review game though, after a lot of flustered "raise your hand if you can hear me"'s we finally got the review game going and were able to get the kids focused on something productive. I learned that middle schoolers REALLY enjoy review games and to be prepared next time for a very rowdy classroom by the end of the game; especially if it comes down to one questions worth of point separating the teams. All this being said, and as taxing as leading the class was, I'm still just as in love with what I'm doing and the fact that I can make a difference in students daily lives.
After two days of discovering which methods worked with the students and which didn't work it was really great to finally sit down and figure out my goals for this semester. I went into the coaching conversation with no idea of where it was really going to go; being asked 'what are your goals this semester' is such a vague and daunting question. Throughout the conversation I slowly made sense of what my goals really were and began talking about what it might mean to see those goals being accomplished. I realized that what I really want to accomplish this semester is to find a method of teaching which allows my students to interact with not only me but each other in a productive manner. I want to find a way to create an environment where I don't have to constantly ask students questions to get an understanding of where they stand in regards to their comprehension of the material. But rather, students are free to converse about the material and the classroom is more of a discussion rather than a lecture at students.
I also want to try and incorporate activities into my lessons in which students get to work collaboratively to come to a deeper understanding of the material. This goal came about after observing my students working together on a worksheet using material they had just been taught and appeared to understand. But, once they were asked to apply this knowledge to a context other than how it was originally taught, they got confused and did not understand how to do this. Observing this really got me thinking about how I would like my students to have a deeper understanding of the lessons they're taught. It through more activities and hands on applications of the material my students might be able to achieve this deeper level of understanding that I would like them to.
With all these goals in mind it's easy to say I want to do all of these things in my classroom but it's still up for debate on how I can accomplish this. I know what I want my classroom to look like and how I would ideally like it to function the only thing now is accomplishing this. And I think it's important through this whole process that I try new things and test a variety of methods in order to see which work best to achieve the type of classroom I want. But! It's also important that I don't overwhelm the students or my CT with too much change. Too much change will lead to the opposite of what I want to accomplish in the classroom. I also need to work on finding new methods of instruction and activities to use with my students in order to for them to achieve a deeper understanding of the material. Any good resources and helpful hints throughout this process would be greatly appreciated!
Next step, lesson planning this weekend and giving my first lesson Monday. Hopefully the first lesson is more of a hit than a flop!
After two days of discovering which methods worked with the students and which didn't work it was really great to finally sit down and figure out my goals for this semester. I went into the coaching conversation with no idea of where it was really going to go; being asked 'what are your goals this semester' is such a vague and daunting question. Throughout the conversation I slowly made sense of what my goals really were and began talking about what it might mean to see those goals being accomplished. I realized that what I really want to accomplish this semester is to find a method of teaching which allows my students to interact with not only me but each other in a productive manner. I want to find a way to create an environment where I don't have to constantly ask students questions to get an understanding of where they stand in regards to their comprehension of the material. But rather, students are free to converse about the material and the classroom is more of a discussion rather than a lecture at students.
I also want to try and incorporate activities into my lessons in which students get to work collaboratively to come to a deeper understanding of the material. This goal came about after observing my students working together on a worksheet using material they had just been taught and appeared to understand. But, once they were asked to apply this knowledge to a context other than how it was originally taught, they got confused and did not understand how to do this. Observing this really got me thinking about how I would like my students to have a deeper understanding of the lessons they're taught. It through more activities and hands on applications of the material my students might be able to achieve this deeper level of understanding that I would like them to.
With all these goals in mind it's easy to say I want to do all of these things in my classroom but it's still up for debate on how I can accomplish this. I know what I want my classroom to look like and how I would ideally like it to function the only thing now is accomplishing this. And I think it's important through this whole process that I try new things and test a variety of methods in order to see which work best to achieve the type of classroom I want. But! It's also important that I don't overwhelm the students or my CT with too much change. Too much change will lead to the opposite of what I want to accomplish in the classroom. I also need to work on finding new methods of instruction and activities to use with my students in order to for them to achieve a deeper understanding of the material. Any good resources and helpful hints throughout this process would be greatly appreciated!
Next step, lesson planning this weekend and giving my first lesson Monday. Hopefully the first lesson is more of a hit than a flop!
Monday, January 13, 2014
What now?
This past year my understanding, knowledge, and love of mathematics has grown and become something I didn't even know was possible. With that, I am finally beginning to understand why some of my professors are known as the "crazy" ones because of how much they l.o.v.e. the material they're teaching. The tricky question that follows that understanding is, does that mean I'm also on my way to becoming one of the "crazy ones"? And thus follows the question of whether or not that's necessarily a bad thing. The answers to those questions are still up in the air...
With this first week of teacher assisting I'm also beginning to see why I was led to this profession in the first place. I truly believe the best teachers are the ones who not only love their jobs as educators but also their content and the relationship they're able to form with all those they come in contact with. I'm beginning to see why this is what makes the best educators; though I'm not ecstatic about waking up at the crack of dawn every day, this is outweighed by how much I love being in the classroom and working with the students and watching them learn and understand. The sense of pride that comes with seeing what I've shown a student to do when faced with a problem is beyond rewarding.
I can't believe that a week ago I was terrified that I had not made the correct career choice. I am beyond excited to start teaching in my placement, create my own lessons, learn new ways to teach the material, and learn how to incorporate all the new technology that is available in my classroom. Whether or not I'm able to do all of this successfully will most likely be the biggest hurdle but that's the point of teacher assisting is it not? Trying new things, pushing your limits as an educator, and bettering yourself through the mistakes and successes you have. The only way to gauge whether or not what I do is successful will be not only be my opinion but also the reactions of my students...Here's to hoping this semester comes with more successes than failures; one can only hope right?
With this first week of teacher assisting I'm also beginning to see why I was led to this profession in the first place. I truly believe the best teachers are the ones who not only love their jobs as educators but also their content and the relationship they're able to form with all those they come in contact with. I'm beginning to see why this is what makes the best educators; though I'm not ecstatic about waking up at the crack of dawn every day, this is outweighed by how much I love being in the classroom and working with the students and watching them learn and understand. The sense of pride that comes with seeing what I've shown a student to do when faced with a problem is beyond rewarding.
I can't believe that a week ago I was terrified that I had not made the correct career choice. I am beyond excited to start teaching in my placement, create my own lessons, learn new ways to teach the material, and learn how to incorporate all the new technology that is available in my classroom. Whether or not I'm able to do all of this successfully will most likely be the biggest hurdle but that's the point of teacher assisting is it not? Trying new things, pushing your limits as an educator, and bettering yourself through the mistakes and successes you have. The only way to gauge whether or not what I do is successful will be not only be my opinion but also the reactions of my students...Here's to hoping this semester comes with more successes than failures; one can only hope right?
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Getting Acquainted
First I should start this blog by saying that it will be filled with not only my experiences through teacher assisting and student teaching but also my mistakes, fumbles, slip ups, successes, triumphs, and anything else I can think of that has/will either strike out with my students or prove to be a home run. That being said this whole adventure into the world of teaching mathematics starts with this semester of teacher assisting. And that's where this blog will begin.
With this first "week", if you can even call it that, came my first experience teacher assisting. And I have to say I was extremely nervous for my first day and though I've known since the third grade I wanted to be a teacher I was still nervous going into the classroom that this would end up being something that I wasn't meant to do or couldn't do. I can confidently say that this was NOT the case at all and after this first week of teacher assisting I am more confident than ever that teaching is exactly what I was meant to do with my life. I truly love being in the classroom and working with the students and cannot wait to see what the rest of this semester has in store for me.
With this first "week", if you can even call it that, came my first experience teacher assisting. And I have to say I was extremely nervous for my first day and though I've known since the third grade I wanted to be a teacher I was still nervous going into the classroom that this would end up being something that I wasn't meant to do or couldn't do. I can confidently say that this was NOT the case at all and after this first week of teacher assisting I am more confident than ever that teaching is exactly what I was meant to do with my life. I truly love being in the classroom and working with the students and cannot wait to see what the rest of this semester has in store for me.
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