I got to teach my first lesson
today to my fifth graders. I went in to it
extremely nervous. I over worried about
many things: was my lesson plan complete,
does it make sense, will I fumble over my words or will I pull this off
(remember I had to not only teach but I had my professor and co-op teacher
watching as well). I would guess that
most teachers, even the great ones that have been teaching for years, get a
little nervous when teaching something new.
You hope that the students “get” what you want them to get, but every
teacher has at least one lesson that just doesn’t go well. I think keeping this in mind made it easier
to do my first lesson (thanks Julie and Caryl).
Once I started the lesson, most
of my apprehensions fell away. I enjoyed
being at the front of the class. I loved
walking around during their group work to assess whether or not they understood
the concept. I was so proud of how my
students listened, did not give up, and worked so well in their groups (and all
of this right after P.E. without their usual bathroom/water break). I have 16 students in my class, and everyone
did well with the lesson. I had 4
students that I believe will need a little more one on one work, and I will get
to go over the process of multiplication with them again.
I think the hardest part of the
lesson, and maybe every lesson, is to make sure that you don’t leave those students
behind that don’t get it easily but also to not make it so easy that you lose
the ones that do get it quickly. I had
some extensions and interventions in place, but I realized quickly that these were
hard to put into place and hard to do with the time allotted. I felt confident that my lesson would last 30
minutes, maybe a few minutes longer, but it lasted 45 minutes. I am glad that I am as organized (OCD) as I
am, because otherwise I fear that I would have gone over my time very
easily.
Time management in the classroom
is so important. We have all been in the
classroom where they have a well laid out schedule posted on the wall. We know exactly how much time we have for
instruction, guided practice, assessment and evaluation. The problem comes in when you start a really
tough lesson they might not grasp quickly or just the opposite, they grasp it
really quickly so you begin to discuss it and don’t want to interrupt a great
discussion. I did not think that time
management would be my issue because I am so conscious of it, but after today,
I realized that I do need to think about it in a little more depth to keep me
(and my students) on task.
These are my thoughts for this
week…I don’t know if I mentioned it, but teaching today was amazing!! I wish everyday could be as much fun (even
with the stress)!!
I am so excited for you, you are going to be a terrific teacher!
ReplyDeleteI can tell you really know your students and that you know their needs are. It's so easy to go over time (from experience). Who ever needs more help you can always come back to them later. I'm going to offer you my plan on following up maybe it will help. In the mornings we have centers before school starts and I plan on starting to be one of those centers, allowing 2-3 students to work with me on the lesson. I don't know if you can take that and use it but I'll let you know how it goes for me. But it sounds like you're really enjoying this time and working out your anxieties.
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on time management echo what I wrote about in my last blog. I can reassure you that, after you have been working at the craft a while, you will develop a certain "sense of time." It is hard to define, but is certainly one of those fruits that experience yields. You will also grow in your ability to modify your teaching - sometimes on the spot - to meet the needs of
ReplyDeletestudents at both ends of the spectrum.
You already have the most important tool, and that is your passion for teaching children. That comes from the heart. The rest comes with experience.