That's one small step for Mr. Ames...

       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.