Flying high, but not without grounds... - Week 3 - Student Teaching Internship

I started teaching my second class on Monday... electrical wiring. I must say it didn't go quite as smoothly as I wished, but it improved over the week... A few of the students have some knowledge and background of basic electrical wiring which definitely makes it more challenging to keep them engaged. They also tend to ask me a lot of questions that are beyond my knowledge, so I am trying to learn as much as I can, but I plan to tell them that "that is a great question... could you look that up, and share it with the class tomorrow?"

Tuesday, we were scheduled to have Mrs. Fay go over the AET via Adobe Connect, but because we had a 2hr. delay, it was rescheduled for this upcoming week. I learned to use the online grading system "Sapphire", and graded exams and entered grades for Mr. Hughes which seems relatively easy compared to teaching... :)

Wednesday was definitely a challenge for me - I taught 3 classes - all in a row, and found that it is nearly impossible to write learning objectives and bell work on the board in between classes... I'm still trying to decide what to do about that because there isn't enough board space for me to write them all up in the morning unless I took up the entire board, and I use the board a good bit since using technology has also proved to be a challenge... I tried a "Teach Like a Pirate" method for my class on electricity... I turned off the lights, projected a lightening storm (video) on the white board, made them create "rain" through various motions (snapping fingers, tapping their lap, and stomping their feet), and told the story of Benjamin Franklin's discovery with the kite, then I move on to the story of Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb. At the end of the lesson I did a matching review game which they seemed to enjoy. My Intro. to Ag class is definitely going to prove to be a challenge as well due to the broad range of students.

Thursday proved to be interesting as well, but I felt slightly less stressed doing 3 lessons in a row; however, what is most frustrating is not being able to remember names with the addition of approx. 40 more students to teach... I have access to their school pictures through the grade management system, so I am planning to print out a sheet for each class to help me learn their names.

Friday I taught about conductors and insulators in my electricity class which seemed to go better than my other lessons for this class; however, I found out very quickly that I have a few students who are going to try to push me (more on that later). Third period I went to observe the Physics teacher (more on that later too)... and then I rushed back to teach my 3rd class on Animal Nutrition. I also taught my first lesson for my SGE class. I taught them the parts of a micrometer, how to read a micrometer and use feeler gauges, and then they had a few minutes to work on their engines and start collecting measurements. This class is certainly going to be a challenge, as several of them didn't want to put on their safety glasses, and made all kinds of excuses or pretended to not hear me... the ones that were wearing them for sunglasses I insisted that they wear them properly, and then I went to the safety glasses cabinet and personally hand-delivered a few pairs and told them to put them on... :)

Reflecting on the week, it went well over all; however, I have a few things that I will need to likely deal with on Monday... a few students were picking on another student, so they are going to be given a warning if they do it again, if it repeats they will lose points, and then they will get detention. I'm also considering that if I have to remind them more than once to put on safety glasses they will lose points, and if it continues their will be more severe consequences. Friday I took the time to enter all of my grades after school, and hopefully that will help as well with getting some cooperation when they realize that I was serious about doing their bell work and filling out their worksheets... zeros aren't a passing grade...

Overall, I feel that the week went well; however, it definitely was more stressful, and I encountered many new challenges, but I'm going to give it my best, and keep trying new things!