7 posts from July 2008

Well, so far the MTC has been everything I thought it would be.  I have met many interesting people from all over the country with completely different views about things.  I have found many people that I disagree with about certain issues, but I have found no one that I do not call a friend.  I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of our group.  I had expected a bunch of self-righteous, liberal yankees coming down to po' ole Mississippi to save us.  I have not found that to be the case.  There are plenty of liberal yankees, but I would say that all of them have a great attitude about what they are doing down here, and none of them have a patronizing view that I can see.  We have a bright, well-rounded group of very good people, and I feel very happy about all of them helping out my home state.  For any MTCer reading this, I wish you luck.

I thought the summer training was excellent.  I think that being able to work with such bright teachers during the summer will really help me as a teacher.  I also got valuable teaching experience at Holly Springs.  I feel like I am not a complete rookie walking in to North Panola this fall.  I think one of the main strengths of the summer training is that it provides a way for teachers to get valuable experience without getting completely thrown to the wolves.  After summer training I also feel that most of the flaws I had as a teacher have at least been exposed.  I may not have learned to correct them yet, but at least I know what they are. 

If there were any flaws to the summer program, I would say that the role plays got a little repetitive.  I feel that our time might have been better spent if we had alternated days in which we did role plays.  I feel that would have made us look forward to the role plays a little more and value them a little more.  It is also my opinion that too much opinion is paid to minute details in lessons as opposed to focusing on whether or not the lesson itself was effective.  All in all though, I would say that summer training was great. 

I will begin by saying that I feel like I have improved a lot over the summer as a teacher.  I am a much more confident teacher than the bumbling, nervous teacher I was at the beginning of the summer.  This was indicated in the video, as I seemed more sure of myself than before.  I had more "presence" if that makes any sense. 

One specific thing I noticed that I improved on was moving around the room.  In the June video I noticed that I was pacing at the front of the room a lot, but there was very little movement around the entire room.  I noticed that I did much better with this in the second video.  By moving around the room I was able to make the lesson less about me and more about the students. 

One specific thing I noticed that I did wrong was actually pointed out to me by another teacher who was watching the video with me.  I thought little of completely turning my back to the entire room as I was writing the bellringer on the board since I was doing this before class had officially started.  Carmen Jones pointed out to me that kids are going to be doing stuff behind my back even if it is before class.  I definitely need to do better with writing on the board like that with my back completely turned. 

I do feel that I was entertaining and made the lesson fun.  I sounded enthusiastic and did a good job of getting all my students involved in the lesson.  Once again, I have to do better with consistency in classroom discipline, but overall I feel like I did pretty well.  We will see how things work out in the fall. 

Time management is easily the number one thing that I need to work on.  I have to get out of the college mode of procrastination, and start becoming a professional.  I have to quit staying up late.  I have to stop not getting enough sleep.  I am seriously disappointed in the way I have handled myself this summer when it comes to time management.  Sure I have managed to make it so far, and I do not think that I have done a bad job at all when it comes to teaching lessons, but I will definitely get burned during the fall if I continue my summer behavior.

I also think I need to get better with being consistent in classroom management.  I have begun to get a little lax with it, and as a result students have started to push the envelope more and more.  I know that I cannot get lax with classroom management during the fall or I will risk disaster. 

My two goals for the fall:

1.  Professionalism

2.  Consistency

Mrs. Young was my team teacher and she seems to be a very laid back person.  However, she was not easy on me at all when it came to evaluations.  One thing that Mrs. Young called me out on that noone else had before is my hand writing.  My hand writing is abysmal and Mrs. Young let me know that.  I think hand writing is definitely something that I am going to have to work on before I start teaching in the fall.  I might have to rely completely on pre-printed materials. 

Another thing that Mrs. Young taught me is to watch my DOK levels.  Before, I had gone by exactly what the framework said.  Mrs. Young made me realize that most of my lessons weren't matching the DOK levels that I had indicated.  I will need to make sure and get that corrected if I am going to be dealing with the state takeover at North Panola. 

Mrs. Young also taught me to deal better with discipline.  I had gotten kind of complacent in my classroom management practices partly because of how good my class has been and partly because I got sort of lazy.  I definitely need to work on consistency in classroom management. 

Well, I filmed myself earlier this week teaching, and I was not surprised that I was surprised at what I saw.  Every time I record myself or film myself I am disappointed in how my voice sounds.  My voice is not deep at all, and it is more country than I imagine.  As far as teaching, one thing I noticed is I tend to pace back and forth at the front of the room but I do not move around the room as much as I should.  While I am talking/teaching I stay at the front of the room but I only move to the back when I am not talking.

I consider myself well-liked by my students, so I tolerate a certain amount of "misbehavior".  That is, I ignore a certain amount of speaking out as long as everyone focuses on the lesson.  However, I did not realize the amount of talking/laughing that goes on that I do not notice.  While I am doing all of my pacing, students are talking and snickering amongst themselves.  I need to do better with that. 

While I dislike watching recording of myself, I found it incredibly useful.  I think the things I noticed in the video will do a lot to improve my teaching and the learning experience for the students.