Week 3

This week was both challenging and exciting. I have begun to teach at least on lesson each day for the full 40 minutes of each class. I really enjoy taking over the class and teaching. I have learned a lot from my reflections on what works well and what did not work well. I am beginning to get to know the students better from teaching as well as their names from taking over attendance. While I have been teaching, my cooperating teacher was in the gym observing on Monday, but the following day and the rest of the days to follow he was sitting in his office with his door closed. It is really important to me that I reflect on my teaching, but I know it would be more helpful if my cooperating teacher gave me some feedback as well. I understand the importance of constant feedback, so I asked him on Friday that I would really appreciate his feedback from the lessons that I teach. He agreed that he would start observing me teach and provide me with feedback.

Though, I am enjoying the time to teach, I have been struggling with the students behaviors. I understand that the students are getting use to me as their new teacher, but they are still challenging me on what they can get away with and challenging me on my rules in the classroom. I know that this issue is something that will be a challenge for most of my teachings because it is very clear to the students and my cooperating teacher that our teaching styles are very different. This past week, students were shocked when I followed through on a consequence of a broken rule. For example, my students have a difficult time keeping their hands to themselves, so before any activity I explain to my students as a class that hitting or touching will not be tolerated in my class. I also explained that it was their first warning and I would ask them to sit out of the activity if they could not follow that rule during the activity. I felt as though I was sending kids out left and right. They were angry, upset, and confused why they were being asked to sit out for hitting each other. Once the student (s) calmed down after sitting for about 3 minutes (maximum), I would walk over and ask them one-on-one if they knew why I had asked them to sit out. Each student I had sit out said they knew why. After the students stated their understanding I simply explained that I was not asking the to sit out to be mean, nor was I mad at them. I told each of the students that I asked them to sit out because they were going to hurt themselves or another students. Most shook their head with a gesture of agreement.  As of right now, I do not have a classroom management plan for my students that underline my rules and consequences. I have decided that I will wait on a management plan because I feel if it is not going to be enforced by my cooperating teacher, and I know the students will have a hard time transitioning to my expectations of good classroom behaviors if they are not enforced by both my cooperating teacher and myself.    

"Keep Your Health Triangle In Balance"

On a better note, for the first time in 20 years that my cooperating teacher has been teaching, I made use of the empty corkboard and put up a bulletin board. It was a good feeling once students began to notice the board, and recognized that it was actually up. I created a health bulletin board simply because this school that is K-8 and does not have a health education program. Since I am at my placement until May, I plan to have quite a few different bulletin displays during the next few months. Once I begin teaching, I plan to have a minimum of five minuets for each of my classes to talk about a health related topic. As of now I do not have any order of health topics but I would like to highlight as many different issues or topics according to each grade level. At Trinity, we had talked a lot about health education programs and how they are ran in most schools. We briefly discussed schools that did not have health education, which we discussed ways to implement health in P.E. I am very thankful for the materials that I still have on health topics and I plan to use the lessons and break them up so it is more informational to students in a very short amount of time. It is very challenging for me to teach in a school that does not support health education or see an importance to the program. I strongly believe a health education program is essential in any middle school and I know that not having a health education program does effect the way students learn and understand changes or issues that are occurring in their everyday lives. 

This week I learned different strategies in helping my students keep their hands to themselves and not be so tempted to touch each other. I never thought a goal of mine this semester would be to get students to listen and to follow basic rules while I teach. I really felt that it made a difference when I told the students that I was not sitting them out to be mean and that I wasn’t angry with them. It seemed that student’s felt a bit of relief when I justified why they were asked to sit out. I hope that taking the time to speak with students one-on-one will begin to change the atmosphere and the students in class. 

One of the things I know I am going to do differently is begin to use a whistle. Never before did I have to use a whistle to grab my student’s attention but it is definitely needed for this placement. I honestly believe it is amazing how small the gym is and my voice is not heard because of how loud the students get. I plan to use the whistle for only a few commands. I don’t want to overuse a whistle because from what I notice now most of the students do not respond to my cooperating teachers whistle because it is used quite often for random commands that are inconsistent.  As for next week, I am being observed for the first time. I know that my supervisor will have tips and ideas to share so I am really looking forward to having her observe my class. With the feedback I receive I plan to make the following changes to see if my students begin to change in a positive manner that will benefit the class as a whole.