Little Lessons
Week 5 of student teaching has officially been my best week yet! I think it turned out that way because of a couple of key lessons I have learned in the past few weeks.
1) Pray for help every morning before leaving for school. I absolutely NEED to pray for this help. I'm a much better teach when I think of Christ, the Master Teacher, at the forefront of my mind.
2) Get the blood flowing. Eighty minutes is a LONG time to sit still for anyone, especially social creatures like high school teenagers! This past week I have realized my students truly do remarkably well at staying with me the majority of the time and they could use a break every 20 or 30 minutes, whether that's a group discussion, activity, video clip or just a minute to stand and stretch. As I have stopped worrying about work-work-work and allowed a minute in between tasks, I have been impressed with their willingness to jump back into the next thing on the list rather than chit-chatting or getting burned out by the end of class.
3) Take a minute to talk about things that are important to them. I've noticed that as I pass papers back if I ask questions like, "Who went to the basketball game last night?" or "Any fun plans for the 3 day weekend?" they relax and open up and (like lesson #2) are more willing to get to work if they feel they have had a second to talk about their lives.
There are many other things I am learning to take in a stride and I feel that I get a little more confident and relaxed with each passing day. I can honestly say I did not lose my cool a single time this week or even have a reason to! I've been very happy all week and felt that a couple of my lessons were extremely successful in getting the students to think critically. Hooray!
1) Pray for help every morning before leaving for school. I absolutely NEED to pray for this help. I'm a much better teach when I think of Christ, the Master Teacher, at the forefront of my mind.
2) Get the blood flowing. Eighty minutes is a LONG time to sit still for anyone, especially social creatures like high school teenagers! This past week I have realized my students truly do remarkably well at staying with me the majority of the time and they could use a break every 20 or 30 minutes, whether that's a group discussion, activity, video clip or just a minute to stand and stretch. As I have stopped worrying about work-work-work and allowed a minute in between tasks, I have been impressed with their willingness to jump back into the next thing on the list rather than chit-chatting or getting burned out by the end of class.
3) Take a minute to talk about things that are important to them. I've noticed that as I pass papers back if I ask questions like, "Who went to the basketball game last night?" or "Any fun plans for the 3 day weekend?" they relax and open up and (like lesson #2) are more willing to get to work if they feel they have had a second to talk about their lives.
There are many other things I am learning to take in a stride and I feel that I get a little more confident and relaxed with each passing day. I can honestly say I did not lose my cool a single time this week or even have a reason to! I've been very happy all week and felt that a couple of my lessons were extremely successful in getting the students to think critically. Hooray!
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