I had three goals from assignment one and I believe I accomplished all three goals. One goal was to continue improving on classroom management. From watching Practicum teachers before student teaching, I had some background on knowing how to keep my classroom management working. Many of the students did not want to listen to me in the beginning, because I am not there “real” teacher, as some of the students would say. However, giving respect to the students, they began giving it back to me and following directions when I gave them. As these past few weeks have gone by, I have felt very confident in how I run the classroom. Students respond to me well, I make everyone participate at some point in a discussion or lesson, and when students are working independently, I make sure it is on their own and not in a group. On most assignments the students have to work independently, then they can work with a partner on something else when they have finished their assignment. I also go over missing assignments right away in the morning and make sure students get their assignments in so they don’t receive a zero on anything.
Another goal I had was to get to know my students better. I had no idea who my students really were, what they liked and didn’t like, or what triggered interest or discussion during a lesson. As time has gone on, I have gotten to know each and every student better. Working independently with students at times, I have learned good ways to get students to participate during a lesson. I always try to bring in an example of someone’s interest during a lesson. For example, the other day we had a spelling test, and I made sentences with the student’s names, and different activities or sports or hobbies that I know some students have. Many students had a good time with this and wanted to make sentences too. Also, some students know the answer to a question, and I know they do, but they do not raise their hand to answer it. Many times I will call on students who do not want to participate. At first I thought this might be a bad idea, but using this strategy has given some of the students more courage and confidence in participating. It has been good to see more students raising their hands during a lesson.
The final goal that I had was to build my confidence up. I have definitely achieved this goal over the past 11 weeks. I first walked into student teaching with hives all over and feeling sick all of the time. I started to really enjoy teaching Social Studies and it was helping me become more confident in teaching. Math was and has been my biggest weakness. At the end of some Math lessons I have students answer one problem from what they learned today. It lets me see how my teaching skills went and how well each student knows how to do the problem. Overall, each Math problem, at the end of the lesson, has showed me that I actually did do a good job teaching. Little things like this have helped my confidence boost. Also, knowing my students and just being myself has helped me become less stressed and more confident in teaching.
A meaningful experience that I had during my student teaching experience was when I had a student struggling with Math. Mr. B. had taught a Math lesson for two days now because some of the students did not understand the material. On the third day, I could tell there was a certain student who was still really struggling with the material. I took this student out into the hallway and worked with them on the Math. He told me he just hated Math and it was pointless and he does not even want to try anymore because no one helps him when he needs it. So I asked him what part he didn’t understand on the Math problem. He showed me halfway through the steps and then he had no idea what to do next. He immediately got frustrated. So I said it is nothing to get that mad over, we just need to work through the problem a different way (the way I learned it in Elementary school, not the way they are learning it now). I showed him my steps of how to work the problem. He still didn’t understand so I showed him another problem. It was great to see his eyes get wide and smile, and say that he wanted to try one. I gave him another problem and he worked right through it in a few seconds. I remember him saying, “Wow, that’s it? Why don’t we learn that way?” It made me feel good that I could teach him a few different ways until he got the problem, especially since Math is my weak subject. On the Math test later that week, he ended up getting an A. Ever since that time, which was only the 2nd week of student teaching, he has come up to me for any help that he needs without a problem. This experience was meaningful because it was pretty much the first time I actually felt like a teacher. I used different strategies to help the student and I got through to him with one of the ways.
