As we draw closer to the end of another
semester I am left with a sense of satisfaction. I not only survived
another year of academic pursuits, but I also grew as a teacher in
ways I never knew I could (and some that I never knew I needed) and I
have learned a lot through the semester. I would like to reflect a
little bit on my first week of teaching on my own and discuss a few
of the things that I thought went really well, and everything that
went really badly. First of all the students were excited that I
would be their teacher full time for this week (and even more when I
told them about how next semester would go!) and we had a lot of fun
going through windows panes and running seminars about our readings
and whatnot. But there was a couple of crucial mistakes I made along
the way, and because I had extra pairs of eyes on me, be it my mentor
teacher, my recordings, or my university supervisor, I learned how
to deal with my errors and correct them in a positive way.
First off
I felt that I handled the mistakes pretty well other than the
emotional jitters of being observed (I am really bad about being to
critical on my own performance as well, but I feel like that only
strengthens how strongly I come back from them) because I was able to
gain crucial details and helpful tips from my peers. I had designed a
lesson plan that I thought was going to go amazingly and that
everyone would love it. Turns out the lesson was too confusing and
students were divided in such a way in the classroom that managing
all of it all at once became way too overwhelming for me to handle. I
bit off a little more than I could chew and the worst part of it all
was that I had come up with a solution just before class had started
and instead of going with my gut and altering the lesson and
explaining to the students that things would be a little different
than what was written on their assignments I chose to just take the
risk and teach the lesson as is. Big mistake. After the lesson I took
the rest of the day to decide how I would handle class the following
day and I decided to bring everyone together and work as a team and
to only do one of the assigned tasks at a time rather than splitting
them up into two separate environments. I also positioned myself in
the classroom more appropriately to best observe the entire room and
let me tell you it went 1000% more smoothly than it had originally.
Everyone had those “AHA!” eyes when I took the time to explain
just the first half of the assignment and took more time to focus on
everyone focusing on the same thing. This also helped because
students could assist each other when I wasn't close enough in
proximity to help them myself.
I was amazed at how willing students
were to work for me as well which is something I had a lot of trouble
with at the beginning of the year, but thanks to the tips from my
peers and sheer determination I was able to get everyone engaged and
on task. All of the students were even sad that I was stepping down
after the week was over to go back to co-teaching. This made me feel
even more confident when I feel like diving into lessons with my
mentor teacher. All in all I am very happy with the success of my
year with the students and I think they would say the same thing.
