Friday, March 7, 2008

Practicum Ups and Downs

For the most part I feel that my practicum experiences are a series of ups and downs.  My teacher lectures a lot and I find it hard to get a lot of interaction with the students (at least the ones in her "regular" English classes).  She teaches a business class as well that is technically an English class for students who are not college bound.  Today I taught a business lesson over different entrepreneur's such as the creators of Nike, MySpace, Ben and Jerry's, and Starbucks.  I really liked the idea of my lesson and was excited to have the students participate, but I quickly found out that a select few, who don't care, can take a class over.  I'm not making excuses - it was my first time teaching a lesson - ever - and I have a lot of learning to do!  I just found it so hard to discipline and get those students, who don't care, motivated and on track with what I want them to do.  I also learned ways that I could have made my lesson better - making sure that I make my objectives clear and showing the students how they can relate to the lesson before we actually begin it.  I labeled today as my first horrible experience as a teacher and have been thinking all day about how I can improve.  I have been reminded that this is a learning process and we aren't going into the classroom as individuals who have the whole teaching thing figured out.  I have a lot to learn and I learned about 50 lessons from the 1 that I taught today.  Even though I was dissapointed with how the lesson went, it made me want to make changes and try it again (Thank goodness)!

3 comments:

Tina and Aaron said...

I am with you Elizabeth, today was my first lesson ever. Trying to get those who don't want to be there, or just want to interrupt, was the thing that scared me the most. As the adult in the room, I just reminded myself, give them a minute to think about what they are doing, then take control.

I think being a guy definitely helps. I had a video camera sat in the back of the room, and one student threw a bottle of glue into a container right next to it, nearly hitting the camera. Just the tone of my voice was enough to evoke a look of fear on her face. I didn't mean for it to happen that way, but...it got the point across. It wasn't my camera or theirs to break.

I'm afraid that many of the females have a tough road ahead of you. Intimidation will not be a strong suit for you. You'll need to find other methods of controlling those who choose to act out.

My sister is a first-year instructor in Florida. She is 27, built like Stacy (no offense Stacy), really small and skinny. She told me that her last block on Friday was out of hand. They wouldn't listen and she was having trouble reining them in. She said she raised her voice, said "That's it! Either you guys sit down, shut up and do the work, or I have no problem writing all 25 of you referrals right now!" She said this quickly got the class on track, but it took going that far to get them under control. Just thought it was an interesting take to the topic at hand.

~Stan

Stacy said...

I havent gotten the chance to teach a lesson in class yet, but i am looking forward to it. My in-class lesson last MOnday was the first one that i had ever taugth and it made me more relaxed than stepping in front of a high school class. I agree with you though- my experiences have also been up and down. One day you love being a teacher and the next day you dont know why you got into the business. Overall, just stick with it. It will get better with time and people will start paying attention better...or so we hope!

Stacy said...

Ha- i didnt even see that comment until after i posted Stan!