Jill got the party started this morning with her lesson on Catcher in the Rye. YAY! I look forward to observing Laura tomorrow (Thurs), Kathryn & Nicole Lanni next Monday, and Tracy on Tuesday (right?). I want to ask each of you to post a reflection here after your lesson is over and you've had time to process the feedback you received from both me and your cooperating teacher.
What BIG messages did you take away from this lesson in regard to your presence in the classroom and your teaching methods and moves?
What was GREAT about your teaching?
What areas of improvement do you need to document here so we're sure to carry them over to student teaching in September?
Please think of this post as a placeholder--reflect while it's still fresh on your mind, and the blog will preserve your ideas for you until fall. Thank you!
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This morning, I taught a lesson on two myths about Atalanta’s suitors to a freshman class. The lesson was during the second period of the day, which gave me more time to be nervous. I wanted to make sure everything was in place before I started, because I didn’t want any disasters to befall the class.
ReplyDeleteI started the students with a journal entry question: “If you could be any figure in Greek mythology, who would you be and why?” When they were finished, I collected the entries because I wanted to read their responses. After I got home, I read their answers. Nearly every response was different, which delighted me and gave me a chance to know more about the students’ personalities and what they like. Their responses were telling of who they are outside of school.
I then went over the details of the myths to make sure the students knew the events and characters of the stories. Even though parts of the class were relatively quiet, the students gave me great responses during a discussion about gender roles. During the discussion, I used the Smart Board to display a chart of characters and the stereotypes that they fit and didn’t fit into. Some of them astounded me with their ideas about Atalanta’s submission to marriage.
There were four other activities I had planned for the class, including a class discussion and a comprehension quiz, but when I finally got to the group work questions, the period was almost over. After consulting with Andrea (the students’ teacher), I announced that I was giving them a homework assignment (which was going to be an in-class assignment) to be due on Monday. Based on their journal responses, I can’t wait to see their drawings of characters from the myths!
I was pleased with how the lesson turned out, but I still have to work on projecting my voice and settling down the chatter at the end of the class. However, I feel that the discussion was a real discussion, and I paced myself as well as I could to make sure all the students were all on the same page and to allow time for the students to process my questions.
I was proud of the students for their hard work and critical thinking. They were wonderful, which made me happy to work with them.
So, it's been a few days since I taught my lesson. And while I did not cry, throw up or pass out in front of 30+ sophomores (I taught my lesson twice) I still feel as though I could have been slightly less nervous!
ReplyDeleteAs Dr. Cook and Aly (my cooperating teacher) mentioned, I have a hard time letting my guard down! I don't think (and neither do Dr. Cook or Aly) the kids realize it, but it's evident to myself and to those who know me. I feel that this fear will follow me into student-teaching, but I also think that it will go away with time...as that I felt a bit more comfortable and at ease with the second class I taught on Wednesday. It's just ridiculously tough in the limited environment. But, it is something I realize I must work on.
My other self-critic is pacing. However, I am cutting myself a little slack because at North Kingstown HS all the periods are 90-minute blocks! It's a little daunting, but I would say that I only mis-calculated my lesson by about 10 minutes. My plan was to have 10-12 minutes at the end of the period for the students to start reading in class, but it turns out I had about 20 minutes for reading during the first class. During the second class, the lesson went a little longer and they had 15 minutes of reading.
Overall, I wasn't displeased with my experience. The students participated properly and didn't let me down! I didn't hear too many crickets when I asked questions. I had my go-to kids, the ones who I knew would answer anything I asked, but overall they all had great contributions.
I am looking forward to going back this week, to hand back the papers they handed in--all with personalized comments. I really want them to know I enjoyed and value what they have to say about Holden and Phoebe.
After teaching today I have realized that teaching high school students is completely different from teaching at the middle level. The students are different, the atmosphere is different, and my teaching style, as a result, must be different. During our debriefing session, Dr. Cook explained these differences in a great way, middle school students are walking around with their shoes unties, not put together, and unable to even take care of them, which makes it easier for us as teachers to mother them and five distinct directions. But high school students are put together and seem to know what they are doing which personally made it harder to define my authority. Our lesson was an introduction to the student’s final assessment with Macbeth. The final assessment is for the students to perform a scene from the play so Kathryn and I decided to open the lesson with a journal prompt and a discussion. This was the strongest part of our lesson. We were able to go back and forth sharing our own thoughts with the students, write with the students, and formed a circle for discussion.
ReplyDeleteThere are three specific goals that I have made for myself after talking to Melissa and Dr. Cook through recognizing some of my weaknesses. Number one, which I mentioned in the blog already, is teacher presence and authority. I need to become more comfortable in the classroom. Be my own person. Joke around with my students. Just relax. Be myself-blend Nicole with teacher Nicole-SASSY! I have it, I just need to bring it to the class – this is hard for me – I don’t know why but it is absolutely number one priority to accomplish. When I stand in front of a class I feel insecure and I need to break myself out of this horrible insecurity. As Dr. Cook suggested I must put on my sheriff badge and remember I am in charge, I know what I am doing; now tell my students what to do. Take charge. This may sound conceded and overbearing but it makes sense and is a quality which will improve my present within the class. This is necessary because it brings learners to the next level. Provide the students with crystal clear directions – know what you want from your students and make them understand your expectations.
My second goal is to own the text. Be a geek or an English nerd! Love your subject and make it known to your students. Share you passion with them. By doing so, it excites the overall classroom and allows the class to be more enjoyable. The final goal I am taking away from this teaching experience is to embrace teachable moments. There were a few times where discussion could have been elaborated and turned into a teachable moment but we messed them! I believe this goes along with owning the text and elaborating about the text. I need to tell my students about characters I love or scenes I love and why they are important to me. When I was sharing my journal entry I should have explained why I like Lady Macbeth. How her strong character is interesting during Shakespeare’s time because women were not portrayed in such a manner. She’s cruel, powerful, and influential and these characters are rare in our literature. She possesses male qualities but because she is a woman her character is defined as “bitchy” and “heartless”. I would have definitely elaborated on this if I were to teach this lesson again.
Our practicum experiences are all about learning and I will take both the warm and cool feedback with me as I plan and teach future lessons. I want to take each goal individually and focus on one at a time so I am sure to master, or at least try to master, these weaknesses I have to work on.
In an update, today, Andrea had a cereal party for her honors English I class. They had bowls of cereal and milk; I joined in and snacked on Fruit Loops. After the students finished eating, I handed back the journal responses and collected the students' homework assignment, which was to illustrate and explain why they would be a certain figure from Greek mythology. All but two of the students had the assignment for me. The drawings were beautiful and the responses were varied. I told the two students who did not have the assignment that I would be back tomorrow and Wednesday so they could give me the assignment then. What I should have said was, "Hand it in to me tomorrow," to be more authoritative and immediate. If they don't have the assignment by Wednesday, I'll just make a note for myself and maybe even say something to the students (?). I hope that they complete it, because their responses say so much about their personalities - who they are and what they aspire to. I enjoy reading them, and tomorrow, I'm going to write more personalized replies than the quick notes I initially jotted down today.
ReplyDeleteLike Nicole, I think our lesson went well overall but there were definitely things that I should not have done, or could have done better. Our directions for the writing prompt and the discussion that occurred afterward were handled pretty well but there were times during the discussion where I feel like I kind of dropped the ball. I don’t know why I was so hesitant to make a change during the lesson that would have made things run more smoothly. For example, Nicole and I had planned to sit at opposite ends of the circle but ended up sitting next to each other so the only kids who really paid attention or participated were the ones on either side of us. Why would it have been so bad for me to say that we wanted to sit apart and then to actually do it?! It seems so simple now but I feel like I didn’t want to disrupt things or actually take charge when it was all happening. This same kind of thing happened when I had them read a scene aloud – I knew that it was a bad decision about 30 seconds into it, so why didn’t I just stop them and say that we were going to move on? I need to get over my reluctance to be an authority figure and to learn to go with my instincts when something isn’t going right. If I know something is failing, I should change it instead of just going with it for the whole class because it’s what I planned to do. Those are the main messages I took from our after-lesson-meeting, along with Nicole’s point of just showing the students that I love English. I need to bring my enthusiasm for certain texts into the classroom in order to get the students more into it and, even if I don’t LOVE what we’re doing, I have to make sure that I find something about it that we can all connect with.
ReplyDeleteOn a better note, Nicole and I worked with the class again today as they read through their scenes and began thinking about their performances and things went much better for both of us. Nicole was Nicole! And we both had more of our personalities come through. I think we were also more assertive in telling the students what they needed to have accomplished by the end of the period and checking on their progress throughout the class. I’m really glad that we have the opportunity to work with them for the remainder of the week because we discussed having a lot of room for improvement in our “debriefing” session and now we can actually put it to use – instead of waiting until student teaching in the fall.
Yesterday, as I was looking over the students' homework again, I came upon one assignment that had a graphic on it. Even though the assignment was to draw, I thought the graphic was well-done. However, I went to the website that appeared on the printed page and found the same pre-made graphic. Andrea told me that it is not technically plagiarism, so I didn't say anything to the student. Instead, as I did with the other assignment, I wrote him a note. His read: "Nice graphic; however, you did not make this, and the assignment was to draw." He usually does his work correctly, so I chalked it up to a difficult situation he is in and the fact that he might not have written down the assignment. This is a learning experience for me, too: next time, I should give a homework slip with directions - that way, everything is clear, and the students won't have an excuse why it wasn't done correctly or at all. Also, I asked for the last student's homework again today, and she said, "Oh, I forgot it again." There wasn't much I could do or say, so I smirked and made a note to myself. In my own classroom, I would give a zero for an incomplete assignment, and if the student was a repeat offender, I would keep him or her after class to speak privately about late or missing work. I don't appreciate that it was a short homework assignment that they had four days to finish, and this student still didn't have it after six days. This ended, a coverage, and watching Hercules ended my visit to Warwick Vets for now.
ReplyDeleteI taught my lesson on Tuesday (with an extremely horse voice) and overall I feel like it went well. I did a good job of merging content and method for this one. I used the first six chapters of To Kill A Mockingbird and had them get into partners to work on a prompt booklet with four prompts in it. I jig-sawed the prompts so that each group could present their findings from one of the four prompts as a way to help other students fill in information that they didn’t have time to complete. After they had time to prepare, each group came to the front of the room to present their information.
ReplyDeleteThe other weakness that I was worried about was finding a balance in how to manage students who are not little children, yet not grown-up either. After the input from Mossberg and Dr. Cook, I feel that (although this is something I will have to keep working on) I did well with this for a novice and will continue to improve.
Good news aside, I did uncover a weakness I hadn’t mentioned in my previous blog post, facilitating discussion! I had a few shining moments; but, there were also way to many “cricket moments” and lost opportunities. I know that it is a skill that comes with practice. I think I have discovered that the root of my problem is stemming from two things. First, I dan’t quite have a handle on what the students are capable of and what is considered “rigorous” for them. I am looking forward to having enough exposure to High School age students to start to understand the scope of their abilities. Second, and this is directly related to the first in a way, is not knowing the students personally yet. I feel that getting to know my students will not only help me to understand what I can expect to be “rigorous” for each of them, but it will also allow me to be more comfortable to know who (and how) I can put on the spot and prod for more in depth information.
All in all, I think it went well. I had a lot of fun and I know what I need to work on for next fall!