Reflection on First Day Lab: When Things Don't Go As Planned

Reflection on Lab 1: When Things Don't Go As Planned

When thinking back on the lesson I preformed on Wednesday Morning I can't help but realize that my number one critic will always be myself.  Seeing how it was in a lab group I was only teaching four individuals. Here were the identified problem students in the class right away:
  • Miss Sleeps A Lot
  • Miss On Her Phone . . . The Entire Time
  • Miss Argues With The Teacher
I give the girls these titles in the lab because in the first minute I identified each of these "problem children" which I suppose would be considered a good thing but then I did what I probably shouldn't have done. I panicked. Instead of thinking "This is how you were trained to handle this" I went internally and said "Why don't you want to pay attention? Am I too boring? Do they not like my lesson?" And so when the chaos of the 10 minutes finally ended I was defeated internally.

Thinking back on it though, I didn't do so bad, but at that moment this was the worse lesson I taught. Statistically thinking I only had 50 % of my students engaged in my lesson (which I know is really bad).  I am grateful that this was only a run through and nothing more.  What makes this good is now I'm taking my classroom outlines and procedures and expectations and altering them to be even better than what I had originally.  Here are some stuff I forgot about:
  1. Ticket Outs - I kicked myself mentally when one of the other student teaching candidates had us do a Ticket Out. I'll be adding that to my classroom and laboratory outline.
  2. Phones on the Desk. By this I mean that the phones will be on the desk and students will know when they can use them. If there is an emergency they can tell me but other than that the phone remains stationary on the desk visible for the teacher too see.  
  3.  Be You - I forgot how important it is for students to show their unique them in the classroom. So I need to allow that and try to target all kinds of learners (multiple intelligence's, domains, and modalities of learning).
Some other things I learned:
  • I can do this. 
  • It wasn't 100 % a failure
  • It was a practice run to help get me ready for when I actually do this run in January
  • Technology will fail - I video taped it but there was no audio recorded (#FailFriday)
  • You might not know everything there is in classroom management but you can't preform all of time during a 10 min session.
    • Sleep Girl - Would have spoken to her after class about expectations and that if there is something going on to let me know ahead of time she needs a break (personal problems)
    • Phone Girl - During first activity I would remind her that it is against school rules to be on the phone like that during class. Remind her that the classroom expectations are that she is Present and Productive, not texting.
    • Challenging my Authority - When it comes to Classroom Outline and Procedure I need to be an immovable object. As a student I can understand challenging authority but I won't back down on these ideas. 
Obviously I know there is much I could continue to gain as a student teacher and so I look forward to practicing this another eight times in the spring (how many classes I will teach). I just got to remind myself that in the moment it all may look like its going horribly wrong but in the end it could turn out perfectly. So now my big challenge forward is to also learn how to not let a couple minutes of "total failure" think ruin the rest of a day of teaching.

To Be Continued . . .

Comments

  1. CJ RippoleSeptember 18, 2017 at 10:50 AM

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    1. CJ RippoleSeptember 18, 2017 at 10:50 AM

      What a fabulous reflection; your experience is only as good as your reflection. You keep your chin up George! These problem children are reoccuring in everyday classrooms, it is something we all try and manage. I always tell my sleeping students to pick your head up or next time you go to the nurse. Keep it up! - CJ Rippole

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  2. UnknownSeptember 18, 2017 at 6:42 PM

    George, don't get so down on yourself! Dealing with students that are difficult can be a challenge and yes you will have multiple misbehaving students at the same time but learning to juggle that while teaching is why we're doing the role playing. Cheer up, buttercup!

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  3. Rosalind CowanSeptember 20, 2017 at 10:19 AM

    George, although I was not present for your lesson, I watched your video and (even though there was no sound) it looked like you engaged the whole time. I liked how in your reflection you included how you will handle similar situations in the future!

    Also for this weeks reflection, make sure you find a few gems to reflect on too!! :)

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