Week Four of Student Teaching

This week was a very interesting week for teaching, we proctored the UBSCT test for the sophomores, tue through thur, and then had an assembly fri. What that means is that for most of the week I had forty minute classes. That made it easy to fill up the time but I haven't been teaching long enough to fill up my full schedule so now I am even more lost as to how much time I have and how much time things are going to take.

This week we continued talking about inference and poetry. It is interesting to deal with the dynamics of each different classroom. I had an activity where I posted six word memoirs on the board and asked each of them to try and determine what the writer was inferring when they wrote it. Some classes seemed to enjoy it and get into the guessing and others were constantly rolling their eyes. Do I write different lesson plans for each classroom, with the same objectives? I don't know yet.

I'm finding that the whole "give and inch" saying is true, for the most part. I try and treat them like adults and let them do some things on their own or let them talk a little when there is down time, but they don't seem to let up when I start talking again. I'm gonna have to be more strict I think.

The poetry introduction went very well, they all seemed to like writing their first poem, but the effect is wearing off. I will use the intro in the future. I taught about alliteration and I think I will change that. In general they didn't seem to like writing the class alliterated poem. I used to be really excited about teaching poetry, and even still I can tie it directly to the state core, but I am wondering what the point is? I see point for myself because It is something that I love, but very few of them seem to truly enjoy it, so am I wasting the rest of their time? Poetry both in the reading and the writing, teaches us how to express ourselves, how to explore our feelings understand them, and then let them out. It also teaches a type of analytical thinking. The ability to extrapolate and infer is a social skill that many miss out on, maybe poetry can teach students that. One point in favor of it is that I like to teach it, and that makes me a more effective teacher. I've noticed in the short time I've been teaching that my interest does not translate directly to good teaching and student interest but it sure does help.