While teaching my first lesson, there were several things I did well and I’ll admit several things I need to work on. During the lesson, I feel I did a good job in using the proper terminology we had taught the students the day before class. I felt they needed it because they all looked a bit scared when I started teaching without the refresher. I also feel I did a good job of going over the tools they need and explaining the steps in simple enough terms for them to follow. I feel one major thing I need to work on is how to effectively say everything I need to include. As I was teaching it, I remembered little small things that I needed to go back and readdress, which I felt made it the demonstration a bit choppy for the students. I also felt a bit discombobulated when I was starting the lesson and figured out that someone from the previous class had taken all of the tools we used for the first …show more content…
Mrs. Welle observed not only me, but also how the students were paying attention to me and noted they were very into it until about the last five minutes. I hardly had to readdress any directions again to the class when walking around and helping and each student successfully built their box within the hour. The true evidence that they put it together correctly came when we unloaded the kiln to find that everyone’s piece was put together correctly and none of them blew up in the kiln. As I reflected on the demonstration, immediately after the students got to work, I realized what was really important to mention to them, and what was not needed at the time. As I walked around, I realized just how bright the students are and that, for most of them, my demo could have been even more simplified so they could have even more time with the box. Either that or I could have used the extra 2 minutes to readdress the areas that the most students were struggling in, which happened to be creating straight and smooth sides on their
Grant Wiggins is the narrator of the novel. He was born in the plantation just outside of Bayonne, Louisiana. He lived there until he went away to college, and when he went back home, he was detached from the people in the town because of his education and different religious beliefs. He is easily angered and often very selfish. This is seen in the way that he acts towards Vivian. He consistently does not give her the attention or respect that she deserves. He refers to her children as simply, “the babies,” and only cares about the names of his and Vivian’s future children. Grant goes from shallow and selfish at the beginning of the story, to caring and loving at the end.
Life is a constant test, and it is up to you whether you find the answers and learn from your choices. The lesson that is most important to learn before you die is to never give up on yourself or others and to fight for yourself throughout tough times. In Ernest J. Gaines’ novel “A Lesson Before Dying” this important lesson is expressed through the characters of Grant, Miss Emma, and Jefferson.
In the Variables and Patterns of Change (Annenberg Media, 2004), we are introduced to two classrooms during their first week of instruction. The first class is Ms. Green’s algebra. Ms.Green uses real life situation of wanting to get a pool in her backyard to teach dimensions and equations. During the example, she helps to guide the students learning by asking leading questions to help them figure out the problem. Once they understand the problem, she puts them into groups to figure out dimensions of different pool sizes and how many tiles it would surround them. While in groups, Ms. Green goes to each group to check their progress and answer any question.
The students really enjoyed this activity because they were able to hear discussion about dialect and slang words that they currently use. Teaching this activity had to be the most rewarding because I saw the look of confusion change to understanding on the faces of so many students. One student said to me after class, "I always wondered why my grandmother speaks so different, and uses words that I never heard of. Tonight I will go home and ask her about it." That made me feel like I helped students think about an issue that they may have never thought of, and it was great! I must admit that I was a little skeptical of the way this lesson would turn out because the first day I had some difficulty. But after seeing my students engaged and excited about a lesson that I created, I knew that I would one day be one of the "great" teachers that I idolize.
A Lesson before Dying is a story that represents how people and their hearts can change, and learn to love and respect and have faith in others again. This story is about two men, one man named Grant Wiggins and another man named Jefferson. These two men go on many rather imparticular journey’s together to find out and fully understand the meaning of life, and who they are meant to be or do while they are alive. Grant Wiggins was a young black man who was an elementary school teacher in the small town of Bayonne, Louisiana. Although He was a very smart man he was also a very bitter and had very little hope in any change of the segregated life that he has always been surrounded by. Grant Wiggins resented himself for not leaving the small, racist town when he had the chance especially after he was presented with, for him, an almost impossible task.
The Great Depression was a long lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. It all began after the stock market crashed in October of 1929. The crash sent Wall Street into a total panic that wiped out millions of investors around the country. Through out the next several years, a lot of consumer spending and investments dropped dramatically which caused huge levels of unemployment and many companies laid off their workers. By 1933 the Great Depression hit it all time low. About 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and roughly half of the country’s banks had failed. In “The Piano Lesson” a play that is set in the 1930’s, the characters were somewhat affected by the taking of the Great Depression.
In conclusion I feel that I have gained knowledge that can only be obtained through hands on experience in the classroom. With this experience I changed my assumption about classroom management techniques and have a totally new outlook which will only aid me as a teacher. This will be of great help to me going forward but I feel as a teacher you must be constantly open to learning and improving
The stimulations were really eye opening. I was able to see through the eyes of a child with a learning disability in different areas. I always understood that children who have learning disabilities learned differently, but I didn’t imagine how extreme the difference could be. The problems were hard for me and became frustrating. I now know firsthand how frustrating it can be for students who have learning disabilities in different areas. It’s amazing what extra time or shorter questions can do to help increase understanding. I realize that some things that come naturally to me may be extremely difficult for someone who learns differently. As a new teacher, I will make sure to teach children strategies and develop assignments that increase student understanding.
I have learned several valuable things from this project experience. First, it’s okay to not know how to do something right away. Ask, observe and experiment. Doing so will greatly enhance my ability to do it correctly and continue to learn. Second, I learned that this can be an experience in frustration if I always try to not make waves. Sometimes waves need to be made to better the project. And third, watch for similar frustrations with my students and intervene before it gets too serious.
This being my first year of teaching I feel there are so many things that I have learned, and have helped me too become a good teacher. Yet I have so much more to learn, I still believe that students have the ability to learn and as a teacher it is my job to find ways to help them to become the best person they can be. Through being a reflective teacher, using professionalism, respecting diversity and having collaboration and community connecting this can be accomplished. When I am having fun teaching the student will have learning that material, this will help them to be relaxed and engaged in that lesson. I feel it is important to connect what they are learning to things that they have experienced in the real-world.
In conclusion, Mrs. Doe displayed how she uses classroom management and reciprocal teaching as well as group activities to allow children to learn from each other and become models for each other that Vygotsky believed was important for learning. Structure is important to her, but she is also able to keep it fun as well. She said “you joke, laugh, talk, read and do the math.” But more than that, her passion keeps her motivated and her sense of self-efficacy is obvious to me and her students will see it too.
After finishing the teaching part of the lesson, I realized that not everything goes according to plan. For example, in our lesson plan, we had the explain portion detailed and outlined to teach students the technical terms of what they were seeing in the stations and other activities and make it a collaborative effort within groups to work with the vocabulary words. However, the teaching of the plan was not well executed. Also, I learned that teaching a topic does not have to be boring or just full of worksheets. Fun, engaging lab stations and interactive activities can fulfill the standards and requirements just as well, if not better, than basic worksheets and PowerPoint lectures. Lastly, I realized that lesson planning and teaching require a great deal of effort and work, but it is all worth it when a light bulb goes off in a students’ head and they learn something new and are excited to be learning and extend their science
Everyone has a different view on how they learn and learning itself. First starting in EXP 105, my understanding of learning was new knowledge and becoming wiser. Taking EXP 105 has truly increased my knowledge of what learning is and the process of it. The most important thing I have learned about learning is that you observe the world around you, make sure it is understandable, and figure out the right way to respond. Learning also provides critical thinking skills. Everyone have different ways of learning and those ways are based on four different learning patterns. The four different types of learning patterns are Sequence, Precision, Technical Reasoning, and Confluence. Learning patterns are very helpful when it comes to everyday life, school work, and your job. Knowing your learning patterns and which ones you should use make
Kinesthetic, visual, and auditory) similar to my previous videotaped lesson. There could have been more accommodations made for my students categorized as special, and I also do feel that I needed to give more prompt feedback to assure mastery of the concepts that I was teaching. These problems could have be alleviated with the use of guiding questions, answer choices, and graphic organizers. A strength that I am proud of maintaining is my effective classroom management and my use of a guided inquiry lesson. These components kept my lesson engaging, fun, and encouraged the students to be more autonomous as I helped them to construct their own knowledge about plants. Things that I did lack in my lesson was informing the students of the purpose of the lesson and the activities that I have planned for the lesson after performing my anticipatory set. As I mentioned previously, the teaching method that I used was guided inquiry. At this stage, we are not only encouraging our students to be the constructors of their own knowledge, but we are also encouraging them to be more independent as well. Using this teaching method provides students with some practice in using inquiry processes. All in all, I have noticed much improvement in my teaching compared to my last videotaped lesson, but there are still some important things that I need to work on: prompt feedback, and providing accommodations to meet the needs of all of my
Do you glance at your watch at the end of class and say, "Oh, it is time for one more exercise" or "Time for me to focus on general?" Some of what you are doing is the best option for the current lesson. You are considered to be using good technique when you usually make effective use of wait time. If you ask students to justify their comments, both right and wrong, keep doing that. Look for the positive in what you do.