Some Observations from the Field: Week 2

Week 2

This was an awesome week for me. I really learned a lot. One of the coolest things about teaching is that every moment you're teaching, you're learning. That's probably in the Top 3 reasons for my desire to be a teacher.

The week started with me teaching a mini-lesson on apostrophes--a simple brush up lesson for the students. (Every week, my cooperating teacher has one of these small brush up lessons on grammar, so when she asked me if I wanted to teach I jumped at the opportunity.) I worked really hard on creating a Prezi for the mini-lesson, so I could consolidate all these funny, real world misuses of the apostrophe.

When I taught the lesson to the third block class, it tanked. I felt like I was teaching at a morgue. The students might has well have been a room full of propped up corpses.

Lifeless stares. Silence. Hoods on heads. Heads on desks. Hell on earth for a teacher.

Block four comes. My stomach sinks as students walk into the room. "It can't get much worse than Block three, right?" I say to my co-op.

She shakes her head. "Make a slight change. Prompt them about what they already know about apostrophes before you start the lesson."

"You think that will work?"

"It's worth a try, right?"

"Without a doubt," I said with a gulp of fear as I glanced at the hazy eyed students entering the room.

Sure enough. It worked. Just prompting the students about their prior knowledge and activating their schema hooked them into the lesson more than a simple cold-opening.

The lesson went swimmingly from that point forward; the students laughed at all the silly misuses of apostrophes and they really seemed to be cognitively aware of the mistakes they had made in the past. I can't say for certain whether or not this knowledge will stay with the students, although they did do well on the mini-quiz that my cooperating teacher had prepared for the lesson.

Overall, this experience was just a great way to see the importance of self-reflection in teaching. I reflected on how my lesson was going poorly and my co-op suggested a slight adjustment to correct the problem. Who knows the change may not have even been the cause for the success of the second lesson, but it certainly didn't hurt. This self-reflection and the accompanying adjustment is the hallmark of a good teacher. Additionally, in order to be a good teacher, one must learn from one's mistakes. One must constantly learn--and that's why I am here--or at least one of the top 3 reasons why I'm here.