Week 6

This week was my first week teaching full time. Some of the lessons I planned, I felt that I was doing a great job and others I felt were a complete disaster. This week was the first time that I had taught grades 6^th through 8^th start to finish. Some of the classes responded well to me and others did not. It is funny that I can teach the same lesson to a sixth grade class that I taught the day before to the same grade level and have a completely different result. This week I became more aware to the difference in maturity levels of my students for the higher grades. In reflections, I took note of what we did, how the students reacted, and how I could change my approach to better fit the personality and mentality of my classes.

For example, I began to incorporate five minutes of health related topics to students in grades 3^rd through 8^th. When I first introduced to the class that health was going to be a topic that we would focus on each time the students had class it seemed that their was a sigh of annoyance while other perked up and gave me their full attention. I started off by informing students that they can learn something from our five minutes of health and felt that that would be sufficient for them to want to listen, but it was not and neither was my excitement nor my enthusiasm. As I went on with the health concept, I finished by letting students know that they do have a say in what is being discussed and I left it to them to take the initiative to suggest a health topic to be discussed by leaving a comment in the questions, comments, concerns box. I learned from my students that I need to give them the opportunity to take responsibility of their own learning by allowing them the opportunity to give their input. I learned with the upper grade in particular that they like to have some control, so I am going to take a chance and see how they react to this opportunity. It is a bit risky, but I believe whatever the students give me I can take it and turn it into something beneficial, worthwhile, and educational for all my students.          

Another thing that I noticed that was beneficial this week was to show students that I am not only their teacher, but I am also human. Later in the week, I began to talk about myself as an example to show students that I am not perfect and we can all learn from each other. Specifically when I was telling students that any topic or issue affecting them related to their overall health. I informed students that we can talk about issues such as divorce, sibling rivalry, making a spots team, or working through a decision or goal together as a class or individually. I wanted to let my students know that whatever we talk about in class they would not be judged. I told my students that may be experiencing things in their life that I may have already experienced, like divorce at a young age. When I mentioned my experience with divorce students (some classes, not all) reacted to my five minutes of health in a whole new way. I asked with a show of hands that wanted to keep talking about health, and majority of my students raised their hand to continue. I know that I am not going to reach every student in my experience at this placement, but it is one of my goals in becoming a teacher to not only educate students, but to also guide them through their teen years no matter the topic or issues that is affecting them with academically or issues outside of school.

Another thing that I became more aware of with the older grades it that some of my students give up quickly on skills or activities that they are struggling with. Rather than telling the students you need to do your work approach, I began to ask students to show me what they could do and I would help them execute the skill. I heard a ton of I cant’s this past week. But with my approach, it seemed to help with the I cant’s and turned into “Ms. Colvin look what I can do.” It was nice to see a small change in the student’s attitude as well as their skill when they saw that I was willing to take time to help them and encourage students that were practicing skills and it was not a competition to who is more skilled in class. Even thought the eight grades give off a sense of they don’t care attitude, any person reacts positively to recognition and positive feedback no matter how well they think they performed.  

For this upcoming week, I plan to continue to have the “I can approach or at least the I can try approach” to the activities that are practiced in the gym. I will also be observed again this week and I am looking forward to more feedback on my effectiveness as a teacher. With the feedback at the start of the week will give me the opportunity to implement those changes or ideas for my lesson plans later in the week.   At the start of this week, I will have a new bulletin board that shows a model of the decision making process. Since I have yet to receive feed back with health related topics, this weeks health topic will be focused on the decision making and the goal setting process. I am hoping this week that I will begin to get feedback from my students in regards to the comment/suggestion box. I am looking forward to a new week and the opportunity to continue in the direction of a confident leader in my classes.