We were assigned to teach 3 days, 1 lesson per day; we had a list to choose from and I chose to teach at Tyrone High School with Mrs. Tiffany Hoy. I was teaching soil science for these days, anyone who knows me knows that soils is not necessarily my strongest subject. At the beginning, I was nervous to teach something that I was unfamiliar with, but I took the challenge and started preparing myself for the days to come.
I was teaching about 18 freshman students who right before my class, came from lunch period...They were a little wound up to say the least!
Day 1:
The students came in the class and looked at me like I had two heads, I was in their class one time before, but only to observe how the class was ran. This time, I am standing in the front of the classroom as their teacher. I introduced myself and had the students create a name tent that said their name and we had a quick introduction of who each student was, and what their hobbies were. I decided to do this activity to try to get students to feel a little more comfortable with talking in class. During the first day, I struggled to get answers from the students, they did not want to give much up/ answer my questions... this was a little bit frustrating to handle but I was persistant with my questioning, hoping it would get better!
Once I got back home, I felt a little overwhelmed and put down, but I soon changed my attitude and decided that I just needed to work harder and think of different strategies to engage the students and make them feel comfortable with answering in class.... So the re-lesson planning began!
Day 2:
I started class with a little more energy, students picked up on this and it seemed to make them open up a little bit more. I also think that since this was the second day of me being there, they were a little bit more used to me and felt more comfortable.I re-taught some of the information because I felt that some students were not really on the same page as the rest, and did not want to confuse anyone right off the get go, being that this was the start of a new unit! I also told the students that their participation and the activities were being graded (which I did not want to have to tell them), which I think helped some students light a fire inside of themselves and decided to participate. I received a lot more feedback from students than I did on the first day, it started to become fun to teach!
Day 3:
After a short review, I found that the students understood the material from the previous days, so I moved on with what I had in store for that day. We did a fun lab where I had polyurethane sprayed 2 different types of soil cods (clumps of soil) that I went and found the previous weekend; the students placed them in glass beakers with water and observed what happened in 30 second intervals for 5 minutes. Students learned that there was air in the soil, they discovered this because of the bubbles that were rushing out of the soil. Students seemed to really enjoy this lab and it grabbed their interest for lessons to come!
Having a class that interacts and answers questions makes the time fly by and fun to teach, being persistent with students and letting them know that you are not letting them off the hook is important.
I received good feedback from my students, good meaning helpful, not everything they had to say was "nice", but it was all helpful in deciding where to take my teaching style. I also received feedback like, "Get your boots dirty, they are cleaner than my sisters prom shoes"...This made me laugh and feel happy at the same time...I was happy because it showed me that my students started to feel comfortable with me.
What needs work:
Clarity of instruction is still something that I am working on, but it is getting better with the use of "buzz" words.
Thanks,
Mike
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