Monday, October 22, 2012
One down, Four More to Go!!!
Our first lesson went so great today that I am afraid Dr. Cook is going to come in to observe us tomorrow and that one is going to go horrible. You could say right now that I am not being too optimistic, hopefully that will all fade away by tomorrow. I think that us humans are intimidated by the idea that we are being watched. Yes back in Prof. Feldstein's class we learned about this theory. Tonight this is something that I feel strongly about, it is hard to shut everything else going around you and concentrate on teaching when there is your professor in the back of the class watching you!!! Our lesson today went on to teach students the importance of compiling and gathering examples before you begin writing an essay. We emphasized to students that this was a benefit for them, so when they start writing their irony essays, they don't have to go read the whole play again searching for examples. Students welcomed the idea and we embarked on making three groups of about eight students each. Each group was assigned either Emmanuel, Ms. Friendson or I. We divided the sections of the book into three and each group was assigned one. Then we went to work, one of the strategies that I used in my group was assigning students each one page from the reading and if they didn't find irony there they would have to go to the five pages that were left and search there. It was very productive and I walked out of Central today feeling accomplished. Students were asked to find three examples and in my group we were able to come up with six, talk about being on task and everyone cooperating. Amongst ourselves we shared our examples and picked the best one to present to our fellow classmates. These examples all had to be explained thoroughly, students had to give an explanation to why this was dramatic irony and they had to talk about how this particular example was relevant to the play or what did it say/show about the character. I was really happy with the outcome, students have now gotten a jump start on their essays without even knowing and I think this is something they will be thankful for even if they don't directly admit it to us. And so I end this blog tonight with the thought of a new day rising, coming, approaching...tomorrow will bring about its new surprises, challenges, excitement and hopefully success.
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Lucy, After observing you and Emmanuel at Central, I can say with confidence that I feel as though you two are at home there. Your relationship with Ms. Friendson coupled with your "tough love" relationships with the students have allowed you to establish yourself there as a teacher, which is why we hope to place you there, at Central, with Ms. Friendson for student teaching. We hope this idea sits well with you! Susan absolutely loves working with you, so we think it's a match made in heaven. Anyway, you should feel good about all you were able to accomplish in your time there this semester. Building the foundation for what's to come.
ReplyDeleteLucy, I know you had an adventurous week, as you were sick. It's absolutely understandable that you would be intimidated at being observed, but don't be. We are there to support you. Yes, we will always offer a mixture of critique and positive feedback, but it's all designed to help you see what we see:)
ReplyDeleteDr. Cook it was a pleasure to work with Susan...while I know I won't be her I learned from her and hope to learn from her if I do get placed there for ST..that would be really awesome since I love her teaching style and can see myself modeling some of that in my own classroom. I loved the students as you know, they are not easy by any means but they make me feel like I am getting the view on education that I envisioned when I signed or this program. thanks for your wonderful comments:)
ReplyDeleteDr. Johnson it was an adventurous week, complete with It's ups and downs but nevertheless we learned a lot in such a short amount of time and we enjoyed ourselves there. I know you guys are not out to get us but we still get nervous about not doing things right. We know it is still a period of trial and error sort of thing, but still who doesn't want to do things close to perfect. I think it has to do with being human, we unfortunately always want to try and do things the right way. Thanks:)
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