I really enjoyed teaching a whole class this semester, where as previously we taught one-on-one in a "tutoring" style. This was my first time teaching to a whole class and I really enjoyed it. I feel that teaching to the whole class showed me different challenges and skills I need that I did not need previously with the "tutoring" teaching styles. Keeping the whole class on task and focused was a new issue for me that I encountered. I learned the importance of assigning students their seats and their groups that are working in to maintain order. Teaching two lessons in one day was a little stressful because certain tasks took longer than I expected and I think I would have preferred teaching my two lessons and two different days. Teaching the first lesson presented some challenges such as not knowing how many students their would be, the level of ability of the students and what their prior knowledge on the subject was. Although this was at first stressful, it did really teach me the importance of incorporating many activities and being able to make changes to the activities to accommodate the students. Looking back now, I would have done things differently in my lessons I taught. I wish I did not play any videos and instead just showed the students pictures or a story to start the lesson and engage them. The videos were time consuming and gave the students more information then they needed if I was going to be using direct instruction to teach the concepts that were in the videos. The students really liked the Inquiry lesson and I wish I had more time during the inquiry lesson. I now have a better idea of activities and ways to introduce topics after teaching and watching my colleagues teach their lessons. Some of my colleagues are already teachers so I liked having the opportunity to watch how they teach and see the strategies they use.
Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you enjoyed teaching to the whole class as a new experience. Upon reflection, I personally was missing the one-on-one or small group work. I think that it's true that it was a good idea to work with a whole class for once.I think that perhaps because I do that on a daily basis, I prefer the small group or tutoring situations because it allows me to really hone my skills because we have more opportunities to teach.I think you are right about the videos. I also upon reflection, thought that our lesson would have been better without them. I also would have changed how we taught and reviewed the vocabulary. What do you think ?