Another week is done. This semester is going by FAST! As always, I have my good days and my bad days. So far this week, I have been fairly successful dealing with the volume of my students during class. I have tried a few different approaches, such as moving talkative students and raising my voice to grab their attention. The best way, thus far, is by raising my voice a little and being stern. I have never had to yell at them but a stern, loud voice does the trick. I don’t know why they response really well to this but they do. It may be because some of the students need this reinforcement, which was brought up during my observation by liaison, due to the fact they don’t get it at home.
My observation went pretty good. My liaison, Rosemary, had some insightful information for me. She gave me some solutions that could definitely help me in my teaching. She noted about the vast amount of questions and need for my attention. She thought giving them a time to ask questions and giving them something concrete, perimeters, would do the trick. I agreed. So, I have been putting up a schedule at the beginning of each day telling what was going on that day. It has been working pretty well. I went over what I expect from them when they come (e.g. sit down, be quiet, get out their homework, etc.) and they understood what I wanted. I will say this, the start of class and expectations are a lot better because the students are acting better.
Now, action research is starting and the baseline data is collected. I collected the first test scores for my 2nd period world history and my host teacher’s 7th period world history class. The test scores were very good. I introduced note taking to 2nd period with some difficulty. They just did not respond to it. Out of the different methods I showed them, they all still use their own way of notes, whether it be outlining, summarizing, or bullets. On Monday, September 27, 2010, I will start giving them guided notes. I just have to wait and see how it works out; time will only tell.
Today, Friday the 24th, I came in with a plan to teach my class content related things but my host teacher came up to me with an idea. He thought that since so much was going on in the news it would be a good idea to hit the kids with some of it. Iranian president gave a speech at the general assembly of the UN that 9/11 was a U.S. government conspiracy, Katy Perry and Elmo’s controversial video of Sesame Street, and few other topics were in the headlines. With my host teacher’s help, I showed them videos of the speeches and topics. The students were to write on the topic after we were done, by a given prompt. This was an awesome lesson that was spur of the moment. Plus, the kids really liked it and responded to it. Despite the down parts, this week has been good and I have actually learned a lot about my teaching practice.
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