Before we begin our adventure student teaching, we are given a unique opportunity to teach in a high school setting for 3 days. In those three days, you learn more than you will in any lecture hall for 3 days. The main reason is that if you mess up, you will get to see the student again the following day. Therefore, it is important to do well out of the gate, it will set the stage for how your week will go.
Day 1
In my case, I thought I did well the first day for what I was expecting, but it definitely could have gone better. My issue was that I asked questions and oh boy, I got answers. The classroom management on my part allowed for students to chime in freely and without structure. (ouch). On the bright side, I definitely had the students interest in the subject matter and they did not feel embarrassed to answer. I would be up to do it this way in the future, if the students could understand the importance of listening to others and waiting their turn. Since this was high school students, I had to take them back to kindergarten on the second day.
Day 2
Back to kindergarten we went. I started out by addressing my classroom expectations on how I will accept answers. From this point on the students did well in how they answered. This made the classroom easier for me to keep track of and monitor how the students were learning. All in all, I believe that day 2 was my best day, I don't feel that I missed out on anything.
Day 3
Day three started out well, however, I do not believe that is how it finished. The reason being, I brought the game Jeopardy into the picture. I do not think it was the students fault, but more my fault. When I asked a question they would quickly reply with the answer by raising their hand before I was done reading. As a result, I was unable to tell who raised their hand first. I quickly addressed the issue and continued. As we played, I noticed some of the things that could have gone better. Having buzzers could have been really helpful. A clicker for me to move to the next side without having to be at the computer would have been better.
Overall I was very pleased with how I did for my first time in front of students for several days. I received good feed back from my those who evaluated me and I put it in motion when I could. I feel confident and ready to step into the classroom and effectively give instruction.
Todd, this experience was had for all of us but it sounds like you had everything under control. I feel that you having to go back to kindergarten on the first day might have been wrong. Don't get me wrong, it is important for the students to know your rules and expectations but maybe state them at the beginning or even when the problem was happening with the students answering questions
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