Last Day w/ Cooperating Teacher

Well today was my last day working with my 2nd period cooperating teacher.  This has been a rewarding experience and I have learned so much.  As a result of this experience I was able to build a rapport with my students which made this a good experience and helped me practice and see how important rappore is when dealing with my students in the future.  I also learned how to manage good consistant classroom management because my cooperating teacher was very good at managing that. while interning at Akins I gained an insight on some of the things I need to improve  and reflect on if i want to be a good teacher, especially my tone of voice and overall demeaner, when dealing with collegues and school personal.  I also was able to experience group teaching which is something that I know most teachers don’t do in schools today but because of this I will work extra hard at trying to incorporate this into my teaching.   

The students of course had different personalities but this was good practice for me at getting to work with multiple personalilites so I think in the future I am more prepared.  Akins student body is different I will admit but the kids are all awesome little people.  I hope that in the future,as a result of this experience it makes me a better and more effective teacher for my students.

This was a sad day for me because I will mess my students, they were great and I have learned more from being with them then they’ll ever know.  I will truly miss being in the classroom.  But like all things good things always come to an end. And so that is the case here, the end.

My first Experience Co-teaching

Today I had the opportunity to co teach with one of my collegues.  This turned out to be a rewarding experience.  Today we taught the students about Africa.  we played african type music while the sts. did a warm up asking them a basic question about africa. then my collegue did a brief lecture on the african continient.  we then broke the students in to five groups each one representing a part of africa(north, east, south, west, and central africa)  each group had a different activity for the students to complete.  these activites we intended to engage and keep them engage in learning about africa.  at the end we elaborated on the warm asking them what new and interesting information they learned about africa.

I thought that this lesson went well. the information given on central africa seemed to be something that the kids were able to do with ease. but the activity for west africa was a bit to complicated for the alloted time we had.  I think i should have pick which african countries to look and no more than 7 and then have them answer a question on it, i think they would have walked away with a better understanding of that concept of GDP.  i also say the many varieties of teaching strategies which we have learned through out the semester.  the board game, getting information from text, crossword puzzle, application activities, etc. were all incorporated in this lesson today. i do see that these work well when combined.

Reflecting on the events of today, i must admit it went much better than i had anticipated.  My collegue and i worked well together and we do in fact compliment one another.  i do know that there are many things that i would change about the way it went. and that is lesson some of the activities. Also if i had more time i would have modeled much better instead of having to explain the activities fuller during the learning time.  I would not teach all these at the same time i would only do two at a time because these worked well but might have been more enjoyable if it was smaller information given with adequete time.   I think lack of good modeling was the biggest down fall, but overall this was the best teaching experience i have had all semester long, on top of the fact that the cooperating teacher is awesome.

Teaching Week

Today, my colleague did a map quiz review with the students to help them prepare for next week map test. The students did well.  After the map quiz the class was put into pairs and worked on a study guide for the up and coming test on SW Asia.

During the map quiz today my colleagued used one of Professor Bond’s teaching strategy to help the students learn where differnt places were in this region.  In order to do this the students were engaging in what Prof. Bonds has taught about this week pertaining to Bloom’s levels of thinking. This particular activity required the students to identify wher certain counties were using the knowledge level.  When it was time to do the study guide the students then entered into the application level of Bloom’s model of thinking, the kids then were asked to put into practice what they had learned.  Classroom management was important in this lesson because it needed to be run in a smooth manner that would make the environment conducive to all involve.   The rules were clearly defined and expected to followed.  this activity was a great example of how important it is to maintain good classroom management, especially considering this was a large classroom and a lot of group activity going on.

For as the way this class went today, I thought it went well.  I would have made some changes to the way in which it was conducted.  I would have gave the students more time to study the maps before starting the activity.  I would have also like to have seen some background knowledge and also demonstrated the activity to the students before starting.  I also thought that it should have been explained that the students were not to have any notes on their desk and I would have made sure.  Far as the classroom management it was awesome especially since we had five teachers present in the room, I felt like the students were able to get the necessary help needed.  One big thing I would change and that is have a answer key to help me better help the students and for my aid to be of better assistance to the students.  Overall this class experience was good.

Working w/ the students

today was an unusaul day for me.  I worked in a small group with about three of the kids to try and get an assignment completed.  One of the it was hard to get him to focus and do the assignment but he did do it after I promised him a piece of gum.  He was very successful at getting quit a bit of work completed.  The rewards strategy we learned in class came in handy today.  The more time I spend in the classroom with the students the more I appriciate this profession.  One student was sent to the nurses office which the students later informed me was going to most likely be tested for drugs, which I thought was odd.  He did return to class and actually did some work.  The teacher was also good at following through with his classroom procedures. and also did a good job at getting the students engaged in the lesson.  Today was  good experience.

All About My Cooperating Teacher’s

Both of my cooperating teachers are really cool so far.  They are both males and is very knowledgable in their subject matter.  They relate well with their students.  They are always on top of their game and have very good control of the tone of their classes.  The students are well informed of the procedures that are expected from them in the class and overall do a very good job in following the classroom directions.  Today in my second period class the kids worked on a study guide for Fridays test.  I thought that the teacher gave them to much independent time to work on the assignment and instead it just gave them time to talk and play around making it to where the kids were just waiting on him to give the answers.  What was suprising about the whole thing is in the end after he gave them the answers he did a quiz game over the material and suprisingly most of the students knew the answers to the question.   Overall I think I would have made this a take home study guide that they turned in to me and then next class period I would have given it back and let them grade and correct it, leaving it for them to complete the assignment on their own.   This would have given more time for studing and quizzing the kids and clearing up any misunderstanding about the material an also time to introduce the next topic.  this was to much down time for my taste.  But overall it showed great success. 

First Day with my Cooperating Teacher

Before my first day  in my ELL I was very unsure about working with ELL students.  I thought it would be extremely chanllenging for me but after seeing a vetern ELL teacher today I have come to the conclusion that it is still going to be challenging but more rewarding than I had orginally thought.  The ELL teacher I worked with today had a very good rapport with his students which I thought made it even easier to communicate with his students and he also spoke spanish.  The teacher I observed today has put in a lot of personal monies and time in order to ensure the success of his ELL students.  He geared a lot of the lesson towards the TAKS test and at the same time giving the definintion and meaning to the lesson speaking in both english and spanish, he didn’t discourage either he let them speak in which ever language they wanted, he was more concerned about understanding the material which I thought was also the most important thing.  I truely enjoyed this experience.