7 posts from July 2008

I was pleasantly surprised with the interns' presentations today! They were well thought out and very interesting.  To be honest, I was not looking forward to watching two hours of presentations during what I thought would essentially be an "off day" (minus our classroom management presentations).  But I think that today was a day well spent.  Most of the interns had some REALLY good topics that really got me thinking.

Individual Comments:
Phillip/Media in Education: Phillip is an amazing speaker!

Amanda/Innocent convicts: Great presentation!

Cathrine/Lost Boys: Very unique and intriguing topic!

Christine/Language: Very informative presentation!

Matt/MTC Moto: Funny video!

Tish/Early Childhood Education: Addressed an important and often times overlooked topic!

Ashton/The American Dream: Good video!

One of the main things that I wanted to improve was pausing during the lesson to think of how to explain/phrase things.  I think that I accomplished that over this past month.  I was pleasantly surprised in how much I improved over this past month.  Last month I gave myself an 88%. This month I gave myself a 92%.

Things I did well:
*The student was really into my set.  In comparsion to June's lesson, my set even more engaging.  My lesson was over globalization and we took an in depth look at Starbucks and McDonalds around the world.  He loved it!!
*Even balance of lecture and independent work.  I have defiantly gotten better at not talking as much and letting the student do most of the work. In June, I was doing too much talking and not enough "teaching." I tended to guide the student too much. I think that I have fixed that problem.  In July, I did not talk that much and let the student discover most of the information. I only came back and clarified things for him.

Improvements:
*I am still having a time management problem.  I tend to over plan my lessons, but everyone keeps telling me that it's better to do that than to under-plan a lesson.  I think I had the same problem in June; but I am getting better at making adjustments throughout my lessons.

I was really pleased with my lesson and improvement since June. It is amazing how much you can improve as a teacher on such a short amount of time.  I hope to only continue to grow.

The first thing that I need to improve on is efficient lesson planning.  It takes me about 5 hours to plan one lesson!!  I stay up all night trying to create a "perfect lesson" -- if there is such a thing.  Although my extensive planning helps me prepare for class, it's taking its toll on me physically.  I am utterly exhausted and the school year will be 10x worse!! I'm not going to make it if I don't get better at planning lesson in less time.

Another thing that I need to work on is making concrete connections between the material I cover.  While I do this 95% of the time, this needs to be done ALL THE TIME!!

I think that I am improving with every lesson that I teach.  I am feeling more and more confident as the summer goes on.  My only apprehension is that I only have one student and I am VERY nervous about having a full class in the Fall.

The one major thing that I learned from Matt Alred is how to make the students do most of the work!!  This is a major challenge for me and I could still use some work on this, but I have gotten a lot better with sitting back and letting the students do all the work for me.  I still like to talk/discuss things with my student, but Matt has been challenging my fellow social studies teachers and I to create a classroom where the student is hard at work and not the teacher. Although I feel that this is not the best way to teach everything, it does help build the skills and confidence of the students and makes my job a lot easier!!

I really enjoyed watching myself teach!! I got to see myself from a different perspective.  Overall, I think that my lesson was well done--but there is always room for improvement.

Overall Impression of the Lesson:
Engaging Lesson: student read, constantly shared his opinion, found the answers to his own questions, used maps, analyzed primary source documents, and completed a creative activity at the end

Things I Did Well:
1. Constantly asked questions
2. Took advantage of teachable moments
3. Related lesson back to set throughout of the lesson
4. Taught behavior as well as academic material; i.e. "thank you" & "you're welcome"
5. Conversational tone

Suggestions for Improvement:
1. Make sure that I do not confuse Presidents!!
2. Could have gotten more out of the Venn Diagram activity comparing FRD to Eisenhower
3. I still talk too much
4. Need to pass out script and instructions for defense activity

I think that the best part of my lesson was the creative activity at the end where my student had to act as a lawyer in a blacklisting case.  In his client's defense he had to use concepts that we had previously discussed in class.  He did an excellent job and showed that he had really retained most of the material we had been teaching him!

The one thing that I will definitely work on is my pausing during the lesson as I think.  If I recall correctly, Mr. Amutah mentioned this to me before, but it was not until I watched myself on video that I noticed how awkward it is.  I tend to pause when I am thinking of how to phrase something or when I am thinking of an example.  Hopefully this month I can eradicate that habit!!