every tuesday/thursday myself and a classmate join an advisory class at school for 30 minutes. since we're there to learn, we do the teaching. i know, it seems ironic. if you've been reading anything so far, it's to learn the hard way - through experience. on thursday we stuck to the normal format of our literacy lesson with 25 minutes of reading and 5 minutes of giving the students a chance to reflect.
we had them write the main idea and 3 supporting details onto a piece of looseleaf. unfortunately, we didn't give them enough time as hardly any students had it finished. as a result, we will be picking them up from the students tomorrow.
this has been a challenging aspect of our time at this high school - collaborating with classmates who are in a different major and with whom we hardly spend any time with. clearly the focus of their studies have been different than ours. thankfully, my partner is a very nice girl and we work well together.
this class is a contrast to the paa 9 class i'm in. they're quick to shut up, quick to listen and generally a keen group. it's nice to experience a bit of contrast, so i'm thankful for both opportunities.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Teaching Lesson #2
i'm not sure if the kids are actually learning anything, but i know i definitely am. this morning i taught my second high school lesson to a group of grade 9 students in PAA. the topic of the lesson was saving and banking.
i found this to be a really tough topic to teach because it seems so obvious to me - the answers to the questions, the explanation of what it is - that to break it down into grade 9 terms was actually so hard. and i don't think i did a good job of it. well, if i had stuck to my powerpoint i might have done a better job of it. there were a few students who were picking up what i was saying quite quickly. they clearly had some prior content knowledge and so our conversation quickly escalated to a more advanced level. unfortunately, that left the rest of the class in the dark. oops.
my co-teacher gave me some good feedback afterwards because i was feeling pretty badly about the lesson. the rabbit trail was fine, but i needed to return to what i had planned. because along the way, i lost a lot of the students.
we also finished with an activity that didn't really tie much into what i had talked about so far. oops again.
classroom management was tough today since we had a sub instead of our regular cooperating teacher. the sub was fine, but not a very assertive personality. i ended up moving one student twice and doing a lot of SHHHHs and please be quiets and please raise your hand. i feel like i said the latter at least 20 times.
in all fairness, i haven't been able to train these students according to how i want to so that makes it tough as well.
highlights - at the beginning of class we read a story together. after learning from last time, i had highlighted two copies for the students to read. and then i got two student volunteers and gave them each a copy. with me as narrator, the students read through the story in front of the class. everyone listened, everyone was attentive, no one spoke out of turn. and we gave our readers applause when they finished. it was great - and i learned the hard way after last week's reading was a flunk!
there is a good part to this learning as you go - you do eventually learn. it just sucks a little along the way.
i found this to be a really tough topic to teach because it seems so obvious to me - the answers to the questions, the explanation of what it is - that to break it down into grade 9 terms was actually so hard. and i don't think i did a good job of it. well, if i had stuck to my powerpoint i might have done a better job of it. there were a few students who were picking up what i was saying quite quickly. they clearly had some prior content knowledge and so our conversation quickly escalated to a more advanced level. unfortunately, that left the rest of the class in the dark. oops.
my co-teacher gave me some good feedback afterwards because i was feeling pretty badly about the lesson. the rabbit trail was fine, but i needed to return to what i had planned. because along the way, i lost a lot of the students.
we also finished with an activity that didn't really tie much into what i had talked about so far. oops again.
classroom management was tough today since we had a sub instead of our regular cooperating teacher. the sub was fine, but not a very assertive personality. i ended up moving one student twice and doing a lot of SHHHHs and please be quiets and please raise your hand. i feel like i said the latter at least 20 times.
in all fairness, i haven't been able to train these students according to how i want to so that makes it tough as well.
highlights - at the beginning of class we read a story together. after learning from last time, i had highlighted two copies for the students to read. and then i got two student volunteers and gave them each a copy. with me as narrator, the students read through the story in front of the class. everyone listened, everyone was attentive, no one spoke out of turn. and we gave our readers applause when they finished. it was great - and i learned the hard way after last week's reading was a flunk!
there is a good part to this learning as you go - you do eventually learn. it just sucks a little along the way.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Teaching Lesson Number 1...
today i experienced what an hour of leading twenty 14-year olds in a structured lesson inside a classroom is like. WHEW. lots to think about.
i'd have to say that the first part of my lesson bombed. i had planned for the kids to break up into groups. this took more time than i had envisioned because i'm an "intern", one girl sneeringly reminded me. she was a delight all class. she started out by telling me her name was "no name". so i called her that all class. if that's what she wants to be known by for now, fine by me. if i was her teacher all semester maybe i'd fight with her early on. but i'll be there for 4 days. if she wants to play games, she can play by herself.
after we broke up into groups, the students were to read through a story in their group. well, problem number one: not all students wanted to read out loud. okay, "you don't have to read if you don't want to". next problem, "does ANYONE want to read?". it was rough. finally, we got the story figured out. there were 5 parts than needed to be read through. what i should have done was to go through each character and have different students from the groups identify which character they would read. then, have them highlight the part that would be theirs to read. next time, instead of taking 15 mins just to figure out the reading part, i might just read it myself. but i learned something: what's straightforward for an adult is rocket science for a high school student and has to be explained in great d-e-t-a-i-l. no matter how painful that might seem.
the rest of the lesson began to progress somewhat smoother after that. i felt better about it at least. and maybe that's because i had an extremely supportive teacher letting me be there, and a rad teaching partner (a fellow student) who helped me out along the way. after the reading kerfuffle, i sucked in a deep breath, laughed at myself and moved onto the next thing. it helped to mouth to both of them: well, THAT bombed! they both laughed... and agreed. nothing like honesty. which i appreciate.
we discussed needs and wants. the kids had a chance to share different things they want and we discussed a system for deciding whether something is a need or a want using a 1-2-3 priority scale. the kids finished off the lesson with exit slips.
little miss attitude's exit slip was my favorite and made my grin from ear to ear. "needs and wants must be prioritized". textbook response to our question to the class, "what's one thing you learned today?".
every single, little, minute detail has to be pre-meditated at this stage in the game. you get in front of that classroom, and rational thought has hitch-hiked it's way to timbuktoo. a good pre- and post-conference are KEY!
my teacher was super supportive, gave helpful feedback, and encouraged. YAY for a positive first experience. soon... sooner, i hope... this will all be old hat.
i'd have to say that the first part of my lesson bombed. i had planned for the kids to break up into groups. this took more time than i had envisioned because i'm an "intern", one girl sneeringly reminded me. she was a delight all class
after we broke up into groups, the students were to read through a story in their group. well, problem number one: not all students wanted to read out loud. okay, "you don't have to read if you don't want to". next problem, "does ANYONE want to read?". it was rough. finally, we got the story figured out. there were 5 parts than needed to be read through. what i should have done was to go through each character and have different students from the groups identify which character they would read. then, have them highlight the part that would be theirs to read. next time, instead of taking 15 mins just to figure out the reading part, i might just read it myself. but i learned something: what's straightforward for an adult is rocket science for a high school student and has to be explained in great d-e-t-a-i-l. no matter how painful that might seem.
the rest of the lesson began to progress somewhat smoother after that. i felt better about it at least. and maybe that's because i had an extremely supportive teacher letting me be there, and a rad teaching partner (a fellow student) who helped me out along the way. after the reading kerfuffle, i sucked in a deep breath, laughed at myself and moved onto the next thing. it helped to mouth to both of them: well, THAT bombed! they both laughed... and agreed. nothing like honesty. which i appreciate.
we discussed needs and wants. the kids had a chance to share different things they want and we discussed a system for deciding whether something is a need or a want using a 1-2-3 priority scale. the kids finished off the lesson with exit slips.
little miss attitude's exit slip was my favorite and made my grin from ear to ear. "needs and wants must be prioritized". textbook response to our question to the class, "what's one thing you learned today?".
every single, little, minute detail has to be pre-meditated at this stage in the game. you get in front of that classroom, and rational thought has hitch-hiked it's way to timbuktoo. a good pre- and post-conference are KEY!
my teacher was super supportive, gave helpful feedback, and encouraged. YAY for a positive first experience. soon... sooner, i hope... this will all be old hat.
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