Finally some real teacher experience :)

            This week has been both hard and satisfying. I had taught all day Thursday, all 4 classes and finally felt like a real teacher. On Tuesday I had my observation and got filmed for my video analysis project. So it has been busy, but I loved every minute of it. With videotaping I was surprised that it was not as painful as I thought. I actually did not look too out of place in a classroom. The students really got into the discussion on madness and Poe during the lesson. It was one of those TV moments when you can’t help but think this is amazing, they actually care about this stuff. So there are a lot of highlights because of all the teaching I got to do.

            My juniors asked me to come to watch their show and that was so sweet. They looked at me with those googly eyes that I could not say no. I wanted to scream inside from happiness, because it felt that they really cared that I was there and I was not just some student teacher that they had to tolerate for a while. That is the best thing for me about teaching is building relationships. The other is having multi-dimensional discussions in the classroom, going beyond the text.

            One thing that has happened that made me think differently about differentiated instruction is actually applying that in my classroom. It is one thing to write it on a TPA and another applying it in real life. One student I knew had trouble organizing his thoughts in a paper form and he has not started on his prompt question. I knew that he understood the material, but I could sense his reluctance, so I came to him and said, I’m gonna give you an option, you can tell me what you know about his prompt instead of writing and guess what? He knew the answer. That was an Aha moment. I know there is a lot of “I” in this paragraph, but I somehow applied what I have always been taught and made differentiating instruction a reality.

            Something that I will take away that I have learned was what my supervisor told me. When you ask a question, but you get crickets, try to simplify the answer, reword it. For instance, if you ask what an unreliable narrator is and you don’t get anything. Ask what reliable means and now what is unreliable in that sense. Then piece all these things together. I definitely will use that tactic.

            There were not really any conflicting situations that have happened. I know that one thing that I could improve on is making assumptions. Coming into a classroom, you assume students know what MLA citations are, maybe not be proficient in citing, but at least have an idea. Then you find out that is not true. I got a lot of that, assuming one thing and then realizing all the things I thought they have learned they did not. So I could definitely stop assuming and do some initial assessment. I try to do that, but at times I fail; so to less failing, less assuming, more figuring out the facts.