My mentor teacher, Autumn, has observed me on more than one occasion. We talk daily and review my progress. Some of the areas I am focusing on presently are increasing my volume when speaking, a short and direct class introduction giving the students only the basics, and knowing when to "zip it" and curb the urge to talk. Stay tuned. Wouldn't want to go on and on....(about that anyway.)
Yesterday, I discretely observed the substitute teacher in our class, watching all her moves which especially related to the issues I am working on. I then asked her to observe me. She kindly agreed. Afterward, we had a great conversation comparing notes. We also talked about the context of being a substitute teacher versus a permanent employee and how different and similar the needs are for instructing. It was a very valuable exchange to have a more neutral outsider's comments. She happened to be an older MAT English teacher getting her Special Ed endorsement from another College. She too is a mother of teenagers. How might those common threads between us have influenced her observations? I guess there is no such thing as being "neutral".
March 10, 2011
My mentor teacher and I are going to talk about my transitions and switching up how I do my lesson plans. She has something in store for me.
Something that has revealed itself is the fact that I really need to have my own personally hand built ceramic examples. Not only for the students to witness as examples but for myself in order to more fully know the processes involved and how to better instruct. I learn by doing. I am running into serious time constraints that have not allowed me to make those extra projects. Consequently, I am not as confident in how I present the lesson and I feel that the students know that. I need to find my own words to describe how I experienced making it, the successes and the failures, using my own coined phrases, my own goofy words. I need to claim the process, my own process.
I am using my teacher as my template when in fact I am the one who needs to.
May 2, 2011
Last week my mentor teacher was gone for the day and there was a substitute. I have had the fortune of observing four different subs each with their own qualities. This gentleman was a seasoned teacher himself in "retirement". He is still a very active teacher. What I liked is that he tried to interact with the students and roamed the room. He verbally held them accountable and told him of his expectation even if it was different than the norm. He followed through on a student who skipped out of class, with a little bit of I spy from me. HA. On this note, I find it very disappointing how students take advantage of the situation with a substitute. It makes me wonder if substituting is very rewarding. Granted, you do not have the day to day work, but you also do not have the relationship with student and seeing the day to day growth throughout the unit. Something to consider, then again when push comes to shove it is a way to stay connected with teaching. It would be a good way to work on classroom management for sure. The substitute and I were able to have a few short conversations about things other than teaching. When it was my class to teach, he stayed in the room for a few minutes until after I had taken roll. He asked for roll on the paper. I told him that I would get it back to him a few minutes after since I was starting a new process with my students at the beginning of class called "Ready & Able", where I took roll but I was also asking students to gauge where they were at in being ready to work. It was the first time I had presented this to the class. They were full of questions and doubt and were not listening to my explanation. Of course, there were stragglers who needed to ask and interrupt. I was not able to command their attention and it was frustrating. Of course, the sub saw it all. After class, he and I were able to talk and I mentioned that I wish I would have thought to have him observe me. He did share a comment, stating that I need to wait, wait...until I truly have the classes attention. He said it is a common problem with student teachers not to wait since they have a fear of not covering all of their material and rush along. This rings true for me. So, this week I will wait...try my very hardest... it is true that I do not have their attention in this circumstance, which they then walk all over tuning me out completely. Work in progress.
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