Thursday, April 7, 2011

Hokey Pete!

My third week in this new placement was pretty emotionally exhausting. I tripled my responsibility from last week, moving from teaching 1 period to teaching 3. This is no problem whatsoever, as I love teaching so much more than observing. I love teaching and working with the students, but I am really struggling with classroom management. This is so frustrating because I had it down pat in the last setting, so I know I have it in me to show authority. I keep telling myself that this will get better as I spend more time in the classroom, but it is quite the challenge as of right now.
This week I taught a lesson that was an absolute nightmare. I was teaching about dictionary skills and spent a lot of time writing the lesson and developing the materials. By the time it came to teaching the lesson, it turned out that everything I had planned went right over the students’ heads. I was standing there like a deer caught in the headlights and ended up having to just call it a day and plan for reteach the next day. Thankfully, the reteach went great! I spent the previous day making an ABC chart and taping it to each desk because students were struggling with ABC order. The lesson was broken up into smaller steps and this worked well with the students. Of course there were still a few areas that I could have perfected, but I was definitely happier than I was the previous day.
I am hoping that tomorrow and all next week I will be in better spirits. I have to keep reminding myself that I am still learning and really need to learn that it is OK to make mistakes. No one is expecting perfection so I need to just give myself a break.

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