Heading into that first day I think i was just as excited as i was nervous. I found out fast how observant students are and how much they hear when your talking. Being able to observe my co-operating teacher and view her style of teaching was helpful. Learning to understand what she expects out of her class and how she connects to the students. Start to understand the material that the classes will be covering. Being able to interact with the students and learn their names. It will help me connect to the students better be knowing them by name. I have already made connections with a few of the students in these classes, my co-op noticed the same and hopes I am able to convince a couple of them to work harder. Also, walking around the school and meeting the administration was very valuable, it shows them that I am sociable and ready to get to work.
I would modify a couple aspects over the past week, mostly learning the students names a little faster, by at least Wednesday. Its Friday now and I know almost all of their names. I know I am very bad at remembering names of people, I don't even know all the names of the students in my clinical studies class. Another aspect to change would be to complete the project that the students had been doing. This would help me understand the difficulty of the project, the time it consumed, and what problems would arise so i could help them more along the way.
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Glad to hear that your connecting with some of the studnets! It is always good to gain their trust, word of mouth travels fast and creating a good report with one student may help with the others. I am also glad to hear that your learning the students names, I am also very bad at remembering names. I have found that doing the work the students have been doing has helped me better understand what they deal with day to day. Sounds like your enjoying learning the school and meetiing the administration.
ReplyDeleteHope your second week goes well! I look forward to reading your future post.
Good Luck!
Learning the names of studetns is very important but I too find it difficult to remember so many names. Since learning their names is the first step in gaing student trust and respect I will quickly learn all of their names.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of your posting, and probably the most insightful sentence I read so far in reading the blogs is: "Another aspect to change would be to complete the project that the students had been doing. This would help me understand the difficulty of the project, the time it consumed, and what problems would arise so i could help them more along the way."
ReplyDeleteI did this for every assignment that I gave my middle school and high school students. This gives you great insight into if your expectations for due dates are realistic. There is a formula (Eric Jensen) that educators use to figure out the time it will take students to complete assignments:
Grades 6-12 N X 3 or N X 4
Grades 3-6 N X 4 or N X 5
with N representing the time it takes you to complete the project from the first to the last step.