The last two
weeks of teaching and observing have again offered a number of opportunities to
learn and grow from as a teacher. The one that sticks out to me the most was an
event that pertained to the types of activities that followed one another. As
mentioned before, our eighth graders had spent significant time designing and
building their own rollercoasters to model potential and kinetic energy. The
project required quite some effort and critical thinking that seemed to ware
down a number of the students. Immediately following that activity, we began to
discuss energy transformations, and their assessment in this portion of the unit
was a graded rubric in which they were to build a new toy, working in the
holiday theme, that demonstrated a few energy transformations. The toys were
supposed to be new and exciting, ones that had not been seen before. When it came
time to present the toys, a few students had shown a drastic drop in creativity
and attempted to take the easy way out by remaking known toys or creating ones
that required little effort. When discussing with the students what they
thought about their own toys, their answer was they knew it was not their best
work but they were simply drained from the rollercoasters efforts of the last
two weeks. On one hand it could be easy to say they were being a tad dramatic,
but on the other maybe if we had restructured our activities a little the
outcome could have been different. In any situation like this, I took away the
fact that rather than blame the students for it not working, step back and take
a look what you as the teacher could change to enhance the time in the classroom.
Take ownership wherever and whenever possible.
There is a few characteristics that jump out when I
think of what an exemplary teacher may look like. First and foremost, that
teacher absolutely has to be liked by the students, which means they must be
friendly with them and get to know them. If a teacher cannot connect with
students and does not display a mutual sense of respect, nothing great will be
accomplished, and that in the end is the goal. An exemplary teacher greets
their students each day with enthusiasm for the content and through taking the
time to check in on them. To further add to that, that teacher displays their
rich knowledge in both content and critical thinking ability. By constantly
putting these two in display you can ask the students to do the same. No
student would respond to a teacher that cannot also do what they are asking
their students to do. Lastly, the trait that needs to be showcased is effective
management and planning. Students can quickly pick up on those teachers who threw
a lesson together last minute or one that does not flow too well. By planning ahead
of time and having a plan it again showcases your care for the students knowing
you put the time in to your plans to maximize their time in your classroom.
Next
semester I will be entering the school/classroom on a full-time basis and schedule.
One of my main goals is to become a part of the school community that I am working
in. I do not simply want to show up, not get to know anyone, and move on once
my time there has finished. I want to get to know the students I will be working
with, attend their extracurricular and sports activities when I can, and get to
know the rest of the faculty whether they be in the science department or not.
Achieving this goal will show the kids I am not simply there because I have to
be but because I want to be. My second main goal, as strange as it sounds, is
to experience a number of failures. These failures I do not want to be
catastrophic obviously, but in having mistakes occur in lessons and activities
and small issues arise, I can truly experience and take away the most from the
classroom. I want to learn what works and what does not, and how often those
simple things can change. Along the way I will obviously learn some tricks of
the trade and be able to set goals of efficient lesson planning and classroom
management, so overall I would say there is a vast list of things I am hoping
to achieve in my time next semester.
No comments:
Post a Comment