Student Teaching Journals 10-12

 

I am going to continue sharing these journals here (since I can go back and read them).  For more info. on what these journals are and to read  previous journals, please click here http://sfraww.blogspot.com/search/label/Teaching

Week 10

 

I have been teaching “full time” for a few weeks now and I am getting the hang of it I think. Of course, there is still a lot for me to learn, but I have really become confident speaking in front of students at the head of the class. This was an issue for me during practicum so I am pleased that I have one less thing to worry about.

One thing I realized I really need to work on still is getting all the student’s attention the first time. I feel like my voice is pretty loud, but I guess I don’t sound as authoritative as other teachers, so some students don’t listen to me until the very end. I feel like this will take me more time to master. I will try counting down or remaining silent until the students realize I am waiting for them to quiet down. Or, for them to really take me seriously, I will say that if I have to repeat myself constantly (for directions or reprimanding a student) that a privilege will be taken away, such as math games that I have planned for them.

Since I teach all week, writing weekly lesson plans has become weekend homework. Although it is only 4 lessons per day (20 lessons a week), it takes me about 3 hours to just write up the lessons! Another hour or so is spent researching and preparing the materials needed. Basically, teachers spend a lot of time outside of school doing their job.  

Starting tomorrow, I have 19 days left at the school! With graduation around the corner, I am really looking forward to a relaxing summer vacation before teaching next year.

 

Week 11

The past week went well for the most part. The students had half days on Monday and Friday, so instructional time was cut a little short for the week. Because I am still “new” to teaching full time, I realized I can be uptight sometimes with getting work done quickly. I feel like I constantly ask the students to move on to the next task with little break or travel time in between. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to waste a lot of time or be reprimanded by my CT for time management, but I know I have to work on giving the students enough time to get each task done. However, some students do take too long for every little task so I feel like I have to be next to them to get them to work.

I felt like my first writing observation was my worst lesson. The students were all over the place and I wasn’t sure if we accomplished much. Like my CT said, writing is a difficult subject to teach with all the modeling, writing skills required, individual pacing, etc. Although I am a writing major, it is one thing to write oneself and another to teach it to younger students. I taught writing the next day and it went a lot smoother. I had the students all sit on the rug and modeled completely what I wanted them to do with their information on the organizer. Then I had them all go back and work on their first chapter using the organizer. I felt like a lot more students got work done and understood the task. We played some music for them so that helped them realize that their voices shouldn’t go above the level of the music which was pretty low.

 

Week 12

I was confident that my 7th lesson would go really well last week. I tried to add a lot of details into my lesson plan and meaningful tasks. I think because I did have a lot of steps, that it took longer than I thought and I overlooked the finer details for the guided reading group. I know it will take more practice to get better at running a good lesson. I did get good feedback from everyone though which was nice to hear.

Last week for social studies, the students have been continuing to work on “suitcases” for states in the southwest region of the USA. They were put in pairs and a few of them have had problems working with their partners. One pair in particular constantly complained to me and asked if they could change partners. I kept telling them they have to work together and this will affect their grades. I feel like getting students to work in pairs/ groups is necessary to get them ready for the real world and working with others they might not want to. 

I have about 2 weeks left and some students have been asking me when my last day is. A few have told me that they don’t want me to leave and for me to visit once I do! I wanted to give something to the students to remember me by before I leave. During practicum, I got books for all the students and each student picked one so I was thinking to do the same this semester. I know a lot of the students like to read and I want to encourage that so I think it would be a good idea if my CT approves.