Yesterday I had my first trial run conducting classroom instruction with my cohort.
I was surprised how the role playing made the classroom feel very real to a high school classroom. Furthermore, I can see how it relates to students in my college courses now and I can pick out the personalities much faster.
I don't feel like I was caught in an awkward position by my students in the trial run but I definitely saw that I need to improve on tasks/activities that make the students do writing. I think if I incorporate more hands on tasks, the students will be more engaged than as if they were to speak out. The speaking out that I had in the last class tended to have more negative classroom instruction than I would have liked to see.
I can definitely see how that when I become an agriculture teacher, I will have to tailor the lessons and activities to the students that I will be teaching.
Compared to the very first lesson I taught, this went MUCH better. I felt more relaxed, I was more prepared than the last time and just felt comfortable. I think that if I can keep having the same improvements between each trial, I will be comfortable going into student teaching.
Todd, I'm glad that you felt more confident during this teaching session. It is good to keep growing as we go on in the semester. I think that it will be hard to organize everything but it s definitely manageable. Hands on activities are a plus in agricultural education classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI liked your mindset in this blog, Todd. I have been realizing, as well, that teaching is a planned chaos of sorts. Each lesson, like you said, has to be tailored to the specific day, class, and student to produce effective learning. It is nice to hear you thought it was much better than the previous lesson, because sometimes it is hard to get that comfort level so soon into what we are doing. I know I was nervous for my presentation, but we still have a long way to go and making improvements week to week is our learning.
ReplyDeleteTodd
ReplyDeleteI like your positive outlook on the labs and teaching! I think we always need to remember that if something doesn't go as planned it doesn't mean it went bad it just worked out differently. Thanks for reminding me of that by talking about how lessons will be tailored to certain students.
Toddles - Awesome Reflection! I think after reading this, we all have similar thoughts on how things go. I think it is awesome that just from the very first lesson, you are relaxing. You have a great persona about you that I feel kids will love in a teacher. Don't be afraid to use it! I would like to challenge you to think of other ways to keep the students engaged without writing. Yes, it can be effective, but the students will need variety! I know I would!
ReplyDeleteTodd,
ReplyDeleteThe role playing seems to consistently have the same effect in all of our labs -- it made them feel real. It was an obstacle and made the lab have that genuine classroom feel.
Something I have said in past assignments is that the hands on task are the most easily retainable. This is something you touched on and I agree that it is an important part of a successful class.
Something you and Allison mentioned in your reflections is the importance of connecting with your students personally. This is something I agree with and have mentioned in previous posts. It is a good way to ensure the students will want to come to class.
Tood,
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you can feel yourself improve. One saying that comes to my mind is that if you can feel yourself changing then others see it 10 times better. Keep this in mind and don't be to hard on yourself. Keep improving, but by the sounds of it things are going good.