Pre-Student Teaching (EDUC 362: Teaching Experience I) serves as the initial field experience for prospective student teachers and is completed the semester prior to student teaching.
I wrapped up my teaching this week and I'm so sad to leave! The lessons went well though! The kids enjoyed completeing their found poems and then jumped into I Am poetry. They kids were amazing at writing their five lines of poetry and making up one rhyme to fit into that poem. By the end of the project, and my three weeks, they've really begun to grasp the terms of poetry: line, rough draft, final draft, rhyme; and they've turned into amazing little poets!
I brought in cupcakes and juice as a thank you for letting me "practice" on them. As the party got underway Kathleen gave me a stack of papers; pictures from the students with an "I like Ms. Litke..." writing on it. Reading things like "she's nice to me" and "she helps me with my work" gave me the first student insight into HOW I was working with them.
Even better is when I was talking one on one with one of my struggling students who informed me that he liked me, not for the M&M cupcakes but because I made him feel special. Wow...I did my job and I did it well. This has been an amazing experience and the end is a bitter sweet occasion.
This is really a final course reflection, but it is completely relevant to this weeks teaching experience...so enjoy
I was a little apprehensive about working with in the first grade. I met with Mr. Sanchez and he was very positive and convinced me that I should give it a chance. He said I might be missing out on a great learning opportunity. He was right.
I began observing twice a week and the students welcomed me in graciously. They obviously adapt to change rather well, because in no time at all I felt like I had always been a part of the classroom. Observations went well and I had a couple of opportunities to help out in the classroom during language arts centers and math centers.
Then I began my teaching experience. Honestly, I was terrified. I was so afraid they were going to walk all over me, and they didn’t. I did two five day units—one on telling time and the other on measurement. The unit on time went smoothly, only a few minor hiccups with students who missed a day and then were lost the next. In all, there was nothing too grand that I couldn’t handle. The unit on measurement was fun. It was more hands on and more engaging than the telling time unit. The students were up, taking measurements all around the classroom. They worked in partners for most of the activities in the unit. Each person had a role and they would switch off—one would measure and the other would record, then switch roles.
I started the measurement unit on a Wednesday. I did not teach on Thursday, because the students were on a field trip. When I came back on Friday, the students seemed to have the attitude that the week should have been over with the field trip. I could not engage anyone. The students were talking over me and classroom management was a forgotten gem. That day, there was no such thing. Not one student listened to me. They were up trying to measure and I hadn’t even taught them what an inch was. They were using the centimeter side of the ruler, because they weren’t listening and watching when I modeled how to use the ruler and which side to measure with. By the end of the day, I wanted to cry. I thought to myself, how did something that worked so magically two days prior, turn into mass chaos this time? I don’t have the answer, but I’m going back to try again. We can do this!
Mrs. Lyautey came to my rescue that day…or at least she tried. I must have looked at her with a panicked look on my face, because she quickly called the students to attention. They stayed on track for about 30 seconds. She and I looked at each other and decided to call it a day. I looked up at the clock to see what the damage was, and I had made to the end of core instruction time. Holy moly!
It just made me realize that no matter how great of a teacher you are, or what great and exciting things you have planned, sometimes you just have to roll with it. If I had kept trying to go on with those students, I would have come to my boiling point and no one would have come out any better for it.
I find myself frequently self correcting, or self monitoring what I am teaching. I am always telling myself ways to do things differently the next time. I think that is effective teaching—always thinking of the next step…where do I go from here.
I wrapped up my teaching this week and I'm so sad to leave! The lessons went well though! The kids enjoyed completeing their found poems and then jumped into I Am poetry. They kids were amazing at writing their five lines of poetry and making up one rhyme to fit into that poem. By the end of the project, and my three weeks, they've really begun to grasp the terms of poetry: line, rough draft, final draft, rhyme; and they've turned into amazing little poets!
ReplyDeleteI brought in cupcakes and juice as a thank you for letting me "practice" on them. As the party got underway Kathleen gave me a stack of papers; pictures from the students with an "I like Ms. Litke..." writing on it. Reading things like "she's nice to me" and "she helps me with my work" gave me the first student insight into HOW I was working with them.
Even better is when I was talking one on one with one of my struggling students who informed me that he liked me, not for the M&M cupcakes but because I made him feel special. Wow...I did my job and I did it well. This has been an amazing experience and the end is a bitter sweet occasion.
This is really a final course reflection, but it is completely relevant to this weeks teaching experience...so enjoy
ReplyDeleteI was a little apprehensive about working with in the first grade. I met with Mr. Sanchez and he was very positive and convinced me that I should give it a chance. He said I might be missing out on a great learning opportunity. He was right.
I began observing twice a week and the students welcomed me in graciously. They obviously adapt to change rather well, because in no time at all I felt like I had always been a part of the classroom. Observations went well and I had a couple of opportunities to help out in the classroom during language arts centers and math centers.
Then I began my teaching experience. Honestly, I was terrified. I was so afraid they were going to walk all over me, and they didn’t. I did two five day units—one on telling time and the other on measurement. The unit on time went smoothly, only a few minor hiccups with students who missed a day and then were lost the next. In all, there was nothing too grand that I couldn’t handle. The unit on measurement was fun. It was more hands on and more engaging than the telling time unit. The students were up, taking measurements all around the classroom. They worked in partners for most of the activities in the unit. Each person had a role and they would switch off—one would measure and the other would record, then switch roles.
I started the measurement unit on a Wednesday. I did not teach on Thursday, because the students were on a field trip. When I came back on Friday, the students seemed to have the attitude that the week should have been over with the field trip. I could not engage anyone. The students were talking over me and classroom management was a forgotten gem. That day, there was no such thing. Not one student listened to me. They were up trying to measure and I hadn’t even taught them what an inch was. They were using the centimeter side of the ruler, because they weren’t listening and watching when I modeled how to use the ruler and which side to measure with. By the end of the day, I wanted to cry. I thought to myself, how did something that worked so magically two days prior, turn into mass chaos this time? I don’t have the answer, but I’m going back to try again. We can do this!
Mrs. Lyautey came to my rescue that day…or at least she tried. I must have looked at her with a panicked look on my face, because she quickly called the students to attention. They stayed on track for about 30 seconds. She and I looked at each other and decided to call it a day. I looked up at the clock to see what the damage was, and I had made to the end of core instruction time. Holy moly!
It just made me realize that no matter how great of a teacher you are, or what great and exciting things you have planned, sometimes you just have to roll with it. If I had kept trying to go on with those students, I would have come to my boiling point and no one would have come out any better for it.
I find myself frequently self correcting, or self monitoring what I am teaching. I am always telling myself ways to do things differently the next time. I think that is effective teaching—always thinking of the next step…where do I go from here.