This week I called the week of wonder. As I've continued to teach at Juniata Valley High School I can't help but wonder what next like will be when I pick up two more periods a day. General things, such as remember names, learning the bell schedule, and daily routines are becoming easier. However, I still spend much of my time preparing lessons and grading. I predict that is how the next many years of my career will be. I hope to always be striving to make my lessons better and more engaging. I work everyday to incorporate time for the students to synthesize and review information while also incorporating some new information. I hope this will create scaffolding of information they know into what information they learn.
As far as personal relationships I find myself getting along with many of the students but I have a few who constantly challenge me. My goal is to stay fair, be level headed and continue to create the best lessons I can. I am also working on being a more prominent presence in the class. All of the students know me but some don't respect me. I am feeling more comfortable using different voice tones and volumes to get my point across for the curriculum and for discipline.
I was very excited to start a new came with my 7th and 8th grade agriculture students. Since these students have had me for several weeks they are now comfortable in the class and often time become very chatty when it is unnecessary. One day I started counting and they were all quiet. That day I thought about it and what happens when I get to 3? Well, I couldn't answer my own question so I decided to make a game. When students won't be quiet, instead of yelling over the entire class I begin counting down from 5. When I reach 1 if the entire class is quiet and stays that way, they get a point. If even 1 person is talking, I get a point. I have had great responses! The students hold each other accountable. I don't have to use this technique more than once on most days. It has been a great week here in Juniata Valley and can't help but wonder what new success and challenges will come next week!
Hannah, sounds like you are adjusting well and developing strategies for your classroom. As I have told other young ladies going into Ag Ed, two most important things you can do to establish presence and gain the respect of students is to know the content really well and to establish authority by being strict with your expectations, procedures, and consequences. Your student teaching is a time to do exactly what you are doing, which is seeing and understanding what you need to do and trying different and new things to see how it all works.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to my visit on Thursday!
LR