As the term draws to a close, I have an opportunity to take a deep breath and look back on all that I've managed to over the past ten weeks. Honestly the thing I'm the most proud of is the amazing relationships I've begun at Briggs, both with my students (even the irritating ones are awesome)and the faculty (I am sure going to miss the sixth grade team). I feel a bit at a loss that I'm not going to be able to finish up the year (although it's too soon to say where I'll be in the spring) with these kids. I want to know how they do in the rest of middle school, and I want to know how they do in high school and beyond as well. Each kid has so much potential and a different set of skills, and a different set of weaknesses that will set up trials for them.
From a more academic standpoint I am very satisfied with classroom management experience I've had. Mrs. Keener's initial lessons on expectations etc. really made it easy to step in and uphold the same expectations, but I think that I also took a hand in initially setting up those expectations, so I can take some credit too. I know that I am an aggressive and some times overbearing person, so I was concerned that I would come across too harsh or strict, or conversely, I would be so concerned about creating a good relationship with students and NOT being so strict that I would be the 'buddy' teacher who doesn't enforce any rules. I feel that I achieved a happy medium. I think the students both liked me and respected me and in general they followed my instruction and behaved like responsible human beings, I never had any major behavior problems. I am a little apprehensive that I will freeze up if I am in a situation where I encounter open defiance, or an aggressive and angry student. Or even worse, that I will blow up and get in their face. Perhaps I'll have a chance to find out next term.
Another thing that I am very grateful for this term was the opportunity to sit in on a Parent/Teacher intervention conference. A student was consistently having problems being disruptive, unprepared and inappropriate in nearly all of his classes. He was one of my favorite kids, and I had another meeting later that afternoon, so with Mrs. Keener's permission I sat in on the meeting. Since I first started entertaining the idea of being a teacher, working with parents has always been one of my biggest fears. Not so much because I'm scared of them, but because of how I would react, I wouldn't want to offend or be rude to a parent that was attacking me verbally (even if they did deserve it). I've received some advice as to how to interact with parents, but I went into the conference expecting blame and excuses from the boy's parents. Much to my pleasant surprise, the parents were very supportive and grateful for the teachers and their hard work and input. They were at their wits end about how to help their son, and were looking for advice. What I expected to be an argument or blame game was instead a very productive brainstorming session during which several strategies for helping the student to be more successful for the rest of therm. Even better, it's clear now from the end of the term, that since that meeting there had been marked improvement, at least in our class, in his behavior and preparedness, as well as his rate of turning in homework. Though I know this is just one example of a parent interaction, seeing such a positive meeting was the push I needed to really change my attitude about interacting with parents, and to see it as a positive problem solving opportunity.
I am looking forward to the opportunities that A3 will present as far as getting to know more about my student's backgrounds and have some more interaction with their families perhaps. I found it interesting that when I told my class that I was going to A3 next term several of them had older siblings that went there. It will be interesting to see the similarities and differences between siblings. Another of my goals for improvement is increasing the amount of activities that are are student centered, either group or individual activities. From what I know about the structure and ideas at A3 I should have ample opportunity to do that. It is very challenging for me to organize student centered lessons that are more inquiry based, as I think it is for most new teachers.
As I look back at the term as a whole I don't think that there has been a revolutionary change in my attitude or philosophies concerning teaching. Rather I am begun to refine and mature my techniques, and begin to build a toolbox of strategies. through the relationships I've built I have reaffirmed my choice to begin a career in education, and in general I have set in progress the process that, continuing through the spring and summer, will prepare me to have my own classroom.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Reflection: School Improvement Project
I particularly enjoyed this School Improvement Project. I have always really liked time lines and the way that they create connections throughout time, as well as being a device for comparison between cultures or societies. Social Studies is my secondary endorsement, but because of the way that the block classes work at Briggs Middle School I had little to no contact with any social studies classes throughout the term. This particular SIP allowed me to get involved with some of the social studies curriculum. I also appreciated the opportunity to work with a fellow student teacher. Melissa is primarily a social studies teacher, and her cooperating teacher was the primary organizer of this project, Laura Scruggs. As Mrs. Scruggs described it, this beginning of the year time line project was something she and the other seventh grade social studies teachers had been wanting to do for a long time, but no one had had the time to organize it and get all the different pieces together.
Since this was to be one of the first assignments of the school year, Melissa and I finished most of the work before school even began. The process of gathering dates was actually a lot of fun for me. We used the text book that the seventh graders used to draw dates from, and it was a fun refresher for me of World History. We enjoyed color coding and discussed the relative importance of various dates, as well as how we could tie historic events into the modern world that students had were aware of. For example, when the Islamic Empire moves it’s capital to Baghdad, we reflected that most students have heard of Baghdad, and associate it with Iraq, they may not realize that the places that these things are occurring today are the same as they were a thousand years ago.
After school began things got more difficult for us. Because I was with sixth grade and she was with seventh grade we were on totally different schedules, even our passing times were different, so collaborating was a greater challenge. It also became tedious to create the hand made copies for each individual teacher, as well as copies for us to keep in our files. The larger bulletin time line was more exciting because we were able to draw on the aspects of history that are particularly interesting to us to create a more detailed overview of the past 2000 years. I was glad to take advantage of the opportunity to share even a small amount of information about Andalusia under Muslim rule, as well as make some connections between cultures that students might not always see, such as the way that the beginning of the African slave trade occurred around the same time as the end of the complex and powerful African nations.
Unfortunately, my involvement with the project pretty much ended after we posted the laminated bulletin board timeline. Melissa, however, got to be part of the implementation of the timeline project in the classroom. Her particular class had a large number of students with a lot of behavior management issues, so she found that the complexity of the project was challenging for them, and even though they were provided with a list of the dates, many of them still failed to create the timeline in it’s entirety. It was also challenging for them to do their work neatly and in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I was able to review some of their finished products, as I helped one teacher, Mrs. Newson, to grade some of hers.
Retrospectively, the one thing that we have realized we should do differently is that we initially left the birth and death of Jesus off of the time line, when we had included the birth and death of Mohammed. Initially this never occurred to Melissa or I as a problem because we were working specifically within the confines of certain cultures. The cultures that we were dealing with around 0 AD were the Roman, Japanese and African cultures. Christianity wasn’t a major aspect of Roman culture for another couple hundred years, so we noted when Rome began to convert to Christianity, and that was all. However some parents complained about the lack of mention of Jesus, understandably, so my master copy now includes both the birth and death of Jesus. I look forward to using this activity in my own class some day.
Since this was to be one of the first assignments of the school year, Melissa and I finished most of the work before school even began. The process of gathering dates was actually a lot of fun for me. We used the text book that the seventh graders used to draw dates from, and it was a fun refresher for me of World History. We enjoyed color coding and discussed the relative importance of various dates, as well as how we could tie historic events into the modern world that students had were aware of. For example, when the Islamic Empire moves it’s capital to Baghdad, we reflected that most students have heard of Baghdad, and associate it with Iraq, they may not realize that the places that these things are occurring today are the same as they were a thousand years ago.
After school began things got more difficult for us. Because I was with sixth grade and she was with seventh grade we were on totally different schedules, even our passing times were different, so collaborating was a greater challenge. It also became tedious to create the hand made copies for each individual teacher, as well as copies for us to keep in our files. The larger bulletin time line was more exciting because we were able to draw on the aspects of history that are particularly interesting to us to create a more detailed overview of the past 2000 years. I was glad to take advantage of the opportunity to share even a small amount of information about Andalusia under Muslim rule, as well as make some connections between cultures that students might not always see, such as the way that the beginning of the African slave trade occurred around the same time as the end of the complex and powerful African nations.
Unfortunately, my involvement with the project pretty much ended after we posted the laminated bulletin board timeline. Melissa, however, got to be part of the implementation of the timeline project in the classroom. Her particular class had a large number of students with a lot of behavior management issues, so she found that the complexity of the project was challenging for them, and even though they were provided with a list of the dates, many of them still failed to create the timeline in it’s entirety. It was also challenging for them to do their work neatly and in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I was able to review some of their finished products, as I helped one teacher, Mrs. Newson, to grade some of hers.
Retrospectively, the one thing that we have realized we should do differently is that we initially left the birth and death of Jesus off of the time line, when we had included the birth and death of Mohammed. Initially this never occurred to Melissa or I as a problem because we were working specifically within the confines of certain cultures. The cultures that we were dealing with around 0 AD were the Roman, Japanese and African cultures. Christianity wasn’t a major aspect of Roman culture for another couple hundred years, so we noted when Rome began to convert to Christianity, and that was all. However some parents complained about the lack of mention of Jesus, understandably, so my master copy now includes both the birth and death of Jesus. I look forward to using this activity in my own class some day.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Come together, right now...
This week has been a sense of things coming together. As I discussed in my last post, I was sort of put on stall due to the needs of other classes and such. But this week, things have gone my way. We've been able to review for the test, do some reteaching and even create the cool foldable flap books that the kids got to use on their test (not that most of them did...) In the early part of the week I was able to work on catching up those that had been gone, and Wednesday everyone except for one absent person and the girl who missed all of the week before took the test.
It always confounds me the lack of study and test taking skills that these sixth graders have. They have sitting next to them a flap book with step by step instructions for how to multiply fractions, and two methods for dividing fraction. Yet many of them still did the wrong methods, or forgot to do steps, or mixed up division and multiplication. I couldn't believe it. I think that in my class I need to spend some serious time teaching study skills and strategies. Maybe something like a fifteen minute mini-lesson every Friday or something. Of course, with older students (theoretically) it will be less of an issue.
Well, we tested on Wednesday, and then allowed those who wanted to to re-do things that they missed on Friday. All in all it went pretty well, with no scores below a 70%. Though one student still needs her opportunity to retake. Now we're jumping into decimals, and the students seem to be having a much easier time with that. Its a bit more similar to things they are already (theoretically) good at. My big challenge now will be making my webquest functional. A webquest, for those that don't know, is a project that is hosted online, and most of the research and work are done online, and then presented in a computer format, often a power point. We are going to do one where the students have to plan a Winter vacation trip to NYC. They have budget of $2500, though I may increase this. The details are here. Monday I introduce it, and Tuesday we start working on it. Hopefully I can get it done in the time allotted. This is the first project I've tried to teach and I really hope it doesn't bomb. I guess good planning is really the only thing I can do right now, the students will determine the rest.
It always confounds me the lack of study and test taking skills that these sixth graders have. They have sitting next to them a flap book with step by step instructions for how to multiply fractions, and two methods for dividing fraction. Yet many of them still did the wrong methods, or forgot to do steps, or mixed up division and multiplication. I couldn't believe it. I think that in my class I need to spend some serious time teaching study skills and strategies. Maybe something like a fifteen minute mini-lesson every Friday or something. Of course, with older students (theoretically) it will be less of an issue.
Well, we tested on Wednesday, and then allowed those who wanted to to re-do things that they missed on Friday. All in all it went pretty well, with no scores below a 70%. Though one student still needs her opportunity to retake. Now we're jumping into decimals, and the students seem to be having a much easier time with that. Its a bit more similar to things they are already (theoretically) good at. My big challenge now will be making my webquest functional. A webquest, for those that don't know, is a project that is hosted online, and most of the research and work are done online, and then presented in a computer format, often a power point. We are going to do one where the students have to plan a Winter vacation trip to NYC. They have budget of $2500, though I may increase this. The details are here. Monday I introduce it, and Tuesday we start working on it. Hopefully I can get it done in the time allotted. This is the first project I've tried to teach and I really hope it doesn't bomb. I guess good planning is really the only thing I can do right now, the students will determine the rest.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
On other people's schedules
I had challenging situation this week. First of all I had two students who were out sick all week, one of them is a student that I am taking data on for my term project, she is also a girl who needs a little extra help usually to really grasp stuff, so I'm really concerned about what to do to get her caught up when she gets back to school. The other girl's mom has been amazing about coming in nearly every day to get homework for her daughter. She even had me explain to her what I was doing with the students so that she could teach it to her daughter. What an awesome thing to do.
So on top of having those students out of school completely, this is also the week that the sixth grade drama class performs their play. I am totally supportive of the drama program and I'm thrilled that the sixth graders get to put on a play. I am also glad that they perform it during school so that the other students all get to see it, however it did make planning my lessons on Thursday and Friday really difficult because one of the play performances was during my math class, so I didn't have nearly half my class for two days! Of the students I did have were some of my top kids. Now I couldn't very well teach a bunch of brand new stuff, because the drama kids would be totally lost, but I also couldn't just ignore the students who were in class either, especially a few of those really 'high flying' kids who were pretty much demanding a challenge.
So here is what I ended up doing. Thursday I retaught the algorithm I had been teaching earlier in the week. It's a way to divide fractions by finding a common denominator work. I like it because it functions the same way that the model method for dividing fractions works, and it builds off of the algorithm they already know for multiplication (multiply the denominators and the numerators straight across). But it is asking kids to think a little more then simply 'flip and multiply'. To make matters more difficult, the other math teacher, as well as many kids parents or previous teachers have taught them the standard algorithm. So getting them to do it this way has been difficult and some of them are just finally getting it now. So I retaught that.
My teacher's policy is that any homework that is a 60% or lower must be redone in order to receive credit, so I have a lot of kids with 'missing' work, either they didn't' turn it in or need to redo it. A lot. As in more then half the class. So after reteaching the algorithm, I posted a dozen practice problems on the overhead, and students could work on makeup/late/redo work, or work on the practice problems.
A couple of my high students wanted a challenge, so I briefly explained to them the extra step in dividing mixed numbers (still using my common denominator algorithm) and then let them work independently out of the book to practice that (even though we aren't getting to it officially until Monday).
Friday was more or less the same, except instead of reteaching the algorithm, I spent some time teaching dividing mixed numbers, but again, I didn't spend very much time on it, just an introduction, because that is my topic for Monday's lesson. I'm glad that students ended up getting some time to work on late/redo work because the number of missing assignments now is about half of what it was on Wednesday. Sixth graders are still really committed to wanting to do well in school and getting all their stuff in, even if they don't always have the organizational or study skills to make it happen effectively.
So the lesson learned is that even though it may eventually be my classroom, I will still have to work around others schedules. And also that some catchup time for students can make all the difference for them getting things or not getting things.
So on top of having those students out of school completely, this is also the week that the sixth grade drama class performs their play. I am totally supportive of the drama program and I'm thrilled that the sixth graders get to put on a play. I am also glad that they perform it during school so that the other students all get to see it, however it did make planning my lessons on Thursday and Friday really difficult because one of the play performances was during my math class, so I didn't have nearly half my class for two days! Of the students I did have were some of my top kids. Now I couldn't very well teach a bunch of brand new stuff, because the drama kids would be totally lost, but I also couldn't just ignore the students who were in class either, especially a few of those really 'high flying' kids who were pretty much demanding a challenge.
So here is what I ended up doing. Thursday I retaught the algorithm I had been teaching earlier in the week. It's a way to divide fractions by finding a common denominator work. I like it because it functions the same way that the model method for dividing fractions works, and it builds off of the algorithm they already know for multiplication (multiply the denominators and the numerators straight across). But it is asking kids to think a little more then simply 'flip and multiply'. To make matters more difficult, the other math teacher, as well as many kids parents or previous teachers have taught them the standard algorithm. So getting them to do it this way has been difficult and some of them are just finally getting it now. So I retaught that.
My teacher's policy is that any homework that is a 60% or lower must be redone in order to receive credit, so I have a lot of kids with 'missing' work, either they didn't' turn it in or need to redo it. A lot. As in more then half the class. So after reteaching the algorithm, I posted a dozen practice problems on the overhead, and students could work on makeup/late/redo work, or work on the practice problems.
A couple of my high students wanted a challenge, so I briefly explained to them the extra step in dividing mixed numbers (still using my common denominator algorithm) and then let them work independently out of the book to practice that (even though we aren't getting to it officially until Monday).
Friday was more or less the same, except instead of reteaching the algorithm, I spent some time teaching dividing mixed numbers, but again, I didn't spend very much time on it, just an introduction, because that is my topic for Monday's lesson. I'm glad that students ended up getting some time to work on late/redo work because the number of missing assignments now is about half of what it was on Wednesday. Sixth graders are still really committed to wanting to do well in school and getting all their stuff in, even if they don't always have the organizational or study skills to make it happen effectively.
So the lesson learned is that even though it may eventually be my classroom, I will still have to work around others schedules. And also that some catchup time for students can make all the difference for them getting things or not getting things.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Things I've noticed
Students sure behave differently when they are on a field trip. This was a while back, but I never got a change to write about it. On the bus to and from Sky camp, I observed how opposit some students behave. Maddy, who is a great student, pays attention, always asks for help and is very respectful was really loud and rambunctious on the bus. Grant, a student who doesn't pay attention, cracks jokes, doesn't always turn in homework was sitting quietly without cahtting with others, just playing his hand held video game and minding his own business. I must admit I was very surprised.
I've also noticed that there is a trade off for semantics of homework. I may have mentioned this before, as it bugs me. A teacher can require that homework be in a certain format. Problems in collumns down the left side of the paper, one line between each problem etc. However, that level of detail for homework layout causes confusion and unnecessary 'mistakes' for the kids. It is a trade off though. The homework that is all organized exactly the same is also much easier for the teacher to grade. Is it a fair trade off? Something else that enters into this discussion is whether homework should be given a grade for being done, or if home work should be graded as assessment and given a score out of a total.
Something I noticed just today is that for a warm up, if you plan on going through the problems, more then two questions is too much, you'll spend half the period going over the warm up. Stick to one or two. If the warm up is just to jog their memory, and they won't be correcting it, doing four or 5 problems is acceptable, but then just move on after they have completed it.
I've also noticed that there is a trade off for semantics of homework. I may have mentioned this before, as it bugs me. A teacher can require that homework be in a certain format. Problems in collumns down the left side of the paper, one line between each problem etc. However, that level of detail for homework layout causes confusion and unnecessary 'mistakes' for the kids. It is a trade off though. The homework that is all organized exactly the same is also much easier for the teacher to grade. Is it a fair trade off? Something else that enters into this discussion is whether homework should be given a grade for being done, or if home work should be graded as assessment and given a score out of a total.
Something I noticed just today is that for a warm up, if you plan on going through the problems, more then two questions is too much, you'll spend half the period going over the warm up. Stick to one or two. If the warm up is just to jog their memory, and they won't be correcting it, doing four or 5 problems is acceptable, but then just move on after they have completed it.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Cave Man Day
Things are going much more smoothly with my unit this week. We are way behind where I had planned for us to be, but it's more important that the students are getting this, then that they stay on schedule. My observed lesson on Tuesday went well, all things considered, though I wasn't able to video tape the whole thing (the battery died) I did get the first 15 minutes. I am avoiding watching it because I hate the way my voice sounds recorded.
On Thursday we did a very interesting Prehistoric Man thing. Rather then have 3rd or 4th period, the 6th graders were divided up into clans (Clan of the Cave Bear, Clan of the Saber Tooth Tiger etc.) They rotated through five different stations. One was 'Mammoth hunting", some folks from Doris Ranch had spears with the stick you use to throw them (I can't for the life of me remember the name of it) and were showing the kids how to use them. There was a painting of a Woolly Mammoth on cardboard that they were trying to hit (this activity was out in the field). Also outside was a pavilion under which they were making fire by rubbing sticks together. Indoors there was a 'stick dice' game spread out on furs where depending on which symbols were showing when you threw the sticks you received points. There was also a 'cave painting' activity in which students painted on butcher paper using paint brushes made of sticks and leaves. Finally (the one Mrs. Keener and I were in charge of) there was totem making. Students used clay to create pendants with the image of their clan's animal.
Now Mrs. Keener is not a social studies teacher, and doesn't really know much about the stone age (or claim to know). About halfway through the activity she asked me if I knew what the totems were for. I replied that they were a spiritual or religious symbol. That people believed that the spirits protected them and had power. During the next rotation, Mrs. Keener proceeded to use that as part of her introduction to the activity, but in my opinion, she took it a step too far. First of all she used a subjective second person present tense. "You all worship your totem, you will make a pendant to celebrate your totem". After telling them what they are going to do and how they are feeling about it, she led them through this mock prayer to the great spirit type thing. It made me feel really uncomfortable. This kids may have thought it was silly, and she may have thought she was adding meaning, but it seemed inappropriate. She could have discussed the issue in a more third person objective way. I was afraid that those children who's parents are very religious from a mainstream religion might be offended or angry, thinking that the teacher was promoting paganism of some sort. And those children who may be Pagan or Wiccan or something might be offended that their religious views (totemism, shamanism, natural spirits etc.) were being mocked. No win for anyone! I'm glad she decided to try and educate the kids a little more about what they were doing and why, but she could have chosen a more sensitive way of doing it.
On Thursday we did a very interesting Prehistoric Man thing. Rather then have 3rd or 4th period, the 6th graders were divided up into clans (Clan of the Cave Bear, Clan of the Saber Tooth Tiger etc.) They rotated through five different stations. One was 'Mammoth hunting", some folks from Doris Ranch had spears with the stick you use to throw them (I can't for the life of me remember the name of it) and were showing the kids how to use them. There was a painting of a Woolly Mammoth on cardboard that they were trying to hit (this activity was out in the field). Also outside was a pavilion under which they were making fire by rubbing sticks together. Indoors there was a 'stick dice' game spread out on furs where depending on which symbols were showing when you threw the sticks you received points. There was also a 'cave painting' activity in which students painted on butcher paper using paint brushes made of sticks and leaves. Finally (the one Mrs. Keener and I were in charge of) there was totem making. Students used clay to create pendants with the image of their clan's animal.
Now Mrs. Keener is not a social studies teacher, and doesn't really know much about the stone age (or claim to know). About halfway through the activity she asked me if I knew what the totems were for. I replied that they were a spiritual or religious symbol. That people believed that the spirits protected them and had power. During the next rotation, Mrs. Keener proceeded to use that as part of her introduction to the activity, but in my opinion, she took it a step too far. First of all she used a subjective second person present tense. "You all worship your totem, you will make a pendant to celebrate your totem". After telling them what they are going to do and how they are feeling about it, she led them through this mock prayer to the great spirit type thing. It made me feel really uncomfortable. This kids may have thought it was silly, and she may have thought she was adding meaning, but it seemed inappropriate. She could have discussed the issue in a more third person objective way. I was afraid that those children who's parents are very religious from a mainstream religion might be offended or angry, thinking that the teacher was promoting paganism of some sort. And those children who may be Pagan or Wiccan or something might be offended that their religious views (totemism, shamanism, natural spirits etc.) were being mocked. No win for anyone! I'm glad she decided to try and educate the kids a little more about what they were doing and why, but she could have chosen a more sensitive way of doing it.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
My unit begins
I administered my pre-test on Monday, and started my unit on Tuesday. As I've mentioned before I have about ten kids in my class that I've never had before. All of the kids in my class are at or above where they should be as far as the material I will be teaching. There are two students that lack the confidence in their math skills that would allow them to excel, even though they both scored above average on their pre-test and have showed ample progress throughout the term. On the day we switched one girl came up to me after the switch had occurred. Even though I had told everyone before that the people staying with me would be doing a little more advanced, slightly accelerated math, and the kids with my partner teacher would be doing a little more practice, she needed to reconfirm for herself, "Is this the higher math class, am I supposed to be here?" This girl fits the stereotype for a 'popular' attractive young girl, and she receives extra scaffolding in reading. She has told me before that math is hard for her, which I told her was good thing, it meant she was learning.
I have to admit, my first two lessons were really discouraging. The students were well behaved, they respected me and participated in the discussions I attempted to instigate. But it was all really deadpan. No one seemed like they were having any fun. I don't know if it's me, or the material, or my methods, or them or what. When I have taught lessons before, like when there was a substitute, I felt confident, the kids were engaged and teaching energized me. This was just draining. Part of my problem was that during Wednesday's lesson, I got confused and switched up a few of the examples that I had planned to use that day, and some that I was planing to use on Monday. Not only that, but no one had told me that due to an assembly it was a shorter time period then normal. Due to that I am now about a half a class period behind. It shouldn't make too much difference, I just may not quite be to the lesson on Tuesday that I was planning to teach for my first observation. We will have to see how things go on Monday, and how far we get. I could take extra time on Monday, and then teach what was originally Monday's lesson on Tuesday. Or I could try and move through it really quickly and 'catch up' for Tuesday. Tuesday is designed to be further exploration of the concepts introduced on Monday, so it might work either way. I will have to look more at the two potential lesson plans before I make up my mind.
I have to admit, my first two lessons were really discouraging. The students were well behaved, they respected me and participated in the discussions I attempted to instigate. But it was all really deadpan. No one seemed like they were having any fun. I don't know if it's me, or the material, or my methods, or them or what. When I have taught lessons before, like when there was a substitute, I felt confident, the kids were engaged and teaching energized me. This was just draining. Part of my problem was that during Wednesday's lesson, I got confused and switched up a few of the examples that I had planned to use that day, and some that I was planing to use on Monday. Not only that, but no one had told me that due to an assembly it was a shorter time period then normal. Due to that I am now about a half a class period behind. It shouldn't make too much difference, I just may not quite be to the lesson on Tuesday that I was planning to teach for my first observation. We will have to see how things go on Monday, and how far we get. I could take extra time on Monday, and then teach what was originally Monday's lesson on Tuesday. Or I could try and move through it really quickly and 'catch up' for Tuesday. Tuesday is designed to be further exploration of the concepts introduced on Monday, so it might work either way. I will have to look more at the two potential lesson plans before I make up my mind.
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