Capture 9

So last week I actually taught my lesson. It was my rockin' lesson that I had imagined. I really liked how it went. Geoff's feedback was he wanted the activity to be set up a little more, and go a little slower. I agree. If I could do it over, I might have to change it completely just to fit that criteria simply because 20 minutes might not be enough to have a mock boston massacre trial. I felt that if there had been more time, it would have worked well. Most of Geoff's feedback was directly related to time constraints. I had several people come to me after class and tell me how much they enjoyed class and thought I had done well. Normally "enjoyment" isn't what I'm pursuing, but since everyone in the class is an education major, I'm assuming they thought the teaching was good as well, or else they wouldn't have extended the compliment. Also, Geoff liked the double teaching. I liked it too, in fact I got pretty excited when I thought up the concept.

Tomorrow we are going to start working on the sixth grade curriculum, and I hope it all goes well. I used to be an el ed major but switched because the age group didn't fit me well. I hope I'm able to help my group instead of hinder.

Capture 8

This week was just a bunch of teaching. I was supposed to teach on Thursday but didn't realize that Geoff wasn't going to lecture. Up until this week, we had been observing schools on thursdays so I figured that Tuesday was a teaching day and Thursday was a learning day. Anyway- Thursday is also a teaching day apparently and I wasn't prepared. I sat next to Geoff in class as the rest of my group presented. I thought about leaning over and saying, "I'll just go today" but as I weighed the pros and cons I thought about the quality that would come out versus the quality I could get to come out. I started thinking about cool learning activities I had seen in schools growing up, and decided to do something really cool.

At the end of class Geoff got up and talked to the class about how the only teaching method he was seeing was direct instruction. He told everyone to try out more inventive things, take the class into the lab and do things there, etc. I was a little disappointed because I had already been planning on doing something rad, and now it was just going to be the same as everyone else's.

I guess the thing that I really cemented in my mind was the difference between teaching on the fly and teaching with a plan. I have always considered myself a capable teacher on the fly, maybe even better than many prepared teachers (in church at least). I realized though, that that isn't good enough, not for my students, not when I can do so much better.