Week Three of Student Teaching

Wow! What a great week. I guess the majority was not so exciting. The first two days we did an essay practice test, where they used the outlines they had already created to write an essay. They had the class period to finish it and most did very well. Wed and Thur I had one on one interviews with them about their essays. But Friday I started a poetry unit. The first two classes went really really well especially the second period. The third period was surly, after lunch friday blues maybe? But I was just on cloud nine at lunch time. I was thinking to myself, "They're gonna pay me to do this, what a blast!" The lesson was designed to give them a perspective on how varied the genre of poetry can be, in its style, subject matter, intent, etc. And then give them a chance to write with their own style.

I had a visit from my adviser during second period on Friday. She seemed genuinely pleased by my lesson and the way I presented it, I go pretty high marks on my observation sheet. She asked to borrow a couple of my handouts to show to her classes. So I think this class is one that I can recommend to my colleagues. It is my first true pedagogical success and I found it very encouraging. The lesson itself was varied, it allowed the students to break out move around the room, discuss and express their opinion whether it be a positive or negative one. It seemed to work with the first two classes but I need to get to know my third period A class a little better so that I can tune my lessons into their needs.

I think this is definitely a lesson plan I will use in the future. I might choose different poems for the students to break out and discuss, but none come to mind just yet. In my observation my adviser pointed out that at one point of the lesson I break away from my objectives, but we also brainstormed some easy ways to fix that. It was mainly a change in my questioning and instructions. We just got a projector hung from our ceiling which is easily attached to the computer. I used the document camera for this lesson, but I think it could be improved some if I use a power point or some other presentation to present the poems, I could have lines pre-highlit on a slide so as to easily point it out to them?

In other successes I noticed that this one girl doesn't have many friends, she sits very quietly and doesn't interact with her peers much at all. She also would respond to me very well. One day this week we had some extra time at the end of class, so about two minutes before the bell rang, I walked over to her and whispered that she could leave early if she wanted to. The next time she came to class she smiled at me and said hi, and actually interacted with me. It was pretty exciting for me.