This week at Burrilville was a week full of lesson planning, accomodating, on the spot modifications, and new learnings. One of the most beneficial experiences I had this week was the oppurtunity to teach both the honors 10th grade class and the college prep tenth grade class. Although both classes were filled with bright students they definately differed dramatically when it came to personality and overall effort put into their schoolwork. Faith and I were used to teaching the honors class, which was full of extremely motivated hard-working well-behaved students. Having the priviledge to teach the college prep class and experience the differences and modifications that must be made allowed myself to start developing an adaptative teacher persona. In the college prep class I had to speak louder, develop a stern tone to my voice, and stop students frequently throughout the reading of The Crucible to ensure that students are understanding the events of the play. The students in this class were not afraid to show their personalities and to share their thoughts and opinions. Although this class may have been more rowdier and needed more guidance, it was certainly refreshing to see students finding humour in the play and not being afraid to be themselves. This made me wonder about what type of classes I will encounter as a teacher. I've been told by many teachers that every individual class has it's own personal vibe or essence that is unique and never duplicated. This makes me realize that even though I may be teaching the same material to multiple classes that my time spent in each class will be dramatically different.
In addition to this eye-opening experience I was also able to gain an awarenss of many of my novice teacher weaknesses during observation day. Beginning class that day I felt confidant in the well planned out lesson that was prepared, however by the end of the period and by the end of conferencing I certainly felt doubtful on my original plan. Although it was disheartening to recognize and hear the faults of your teaching it was necessary in order to progress and improve. One of the main flaws of this lesson was the mistake of not being clear and specific while providing directions for students. Although it may seem like a rather simple task to teacher candidates I have to remind myself that high school students need clarity and lots of modeling to perform a specific task. Stating directions while students are gathering into groups is a recipe for disaster. Faith and I ended up reteaching and going over directions with each individual group instead of just being clear from the start; lesson learned! I also learned to never assume that students will "get" something just because you do. The need to scaffold, define words, ask proding questions are all important ways to allow students to grapple with a challenging piece of text. Watching the lesson plan unfold in a real classroom definately shined light upon little yet crucial aspects that were previously unpredicted. My time spent at Burrilville will play a role in helping me become a successful teacher in the future. Althouh I am sad to say goodbye to the students and to my cooperating teacher I am ready to move on to the next palcement and gradually gain the experience needed to be in charge of the education of hundreds and eventually thousands of students.
Rachel, I am so impressed to read such a thoughtful reflection. Thank you! You look at yourself honestly here and shine a light on the challenges you faced in high school; this is not easy to do! I'm hoping others look to this as a model of the reflective practitioner. Truly.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I was thinking as I was reading is that you have spent so many hours, in the past few years, in a college classroom, behaving like college students and watching a teacher who is allowed to do, pretty much, whatever he/she wants to do. So, in many ways, you've not gotten any realistic models in the past few years of what it looks or feels like to be a teacher out there in the public high schools.
This is it!
A lot of information is hitting you all at once, so it's no surprise that many of you are needing to re-learn things that you learned in class, SED 406, maybe, but haven't necessarily needed to apply to the "real world" of teaching. That's what I always say that Practicum is the class where the rubber hits the road.
KEEP GOING!
Rachel, once again I am impressed by your willingness to take feedback as guidance for learning, as opposed to criticism. The mistakes that you discuss are common rookie errors, and it takes making them--and seeing the effects on student learning--to understand how to fix them. Mistakes get made, but it's how you respond that counts.
ReplyDelete“One of the main flaws of this lesson was the mistake of not being clear and specific while providing directions for students. Although it may seem like a rather simple task to teacher candidates I have to remind myself that high school students need clarity and lots of modeling to perform a specific task. Stating directions while students are gathering into groups is a recipe for disaster.”
ReplyDeleteIt’s seemed like almost every group had this problem. I know we did. But directions are certainly important. If students don’t know what they are supposed to be doing, it’s impossible for them to accomplish the given task. Unless of course, they somehow decide to randomly start working on an independent project, that somehow serendipitously turns out to be the very task you had asked of them.
Also, attempting to “shout” directions over the movement of students was definitely something I fell victim to as well (uh probably everyday, multiple times).
“This made me wonder about what type of classes I will encounter as a teacher. I've been told by many teachers that every individual class has it's own personal vibe or essence that is unique and never duplicated.”
This is such a crazy idea, but most probably very true. After reading this, I had this weird glimpse of the imaginary future. Me, elderly, beside a hearth in a room of other old-timer teachers (maybe smoking a pipe) and saying things like “Remember second period of ’22? hohoho they were a bunch a characters. And 4th period of ’34! Nothing like that group, and never will be again.”