I'm better at this than I think

I got the opportunity yesterday afternoon to lead the class in a lesson. Mrs. P had a meeting during the second half of the afternoon, and though there was a substitute teacher present, she asked me to teach the lesson. I was nervous about doing it, but I figured that I would have to do it sometime, especially if I was planning to go to teacher's college and actually become a teacher (duh!). I have to say that the experience went pretty well, and though I made a few mistakes, as can be expected, things went off fairly easily.

The first thing I did was to have all the kids sit on the carpet to demonstrate what they would be doing later on in groups. I showed them a small catapult contraption that had been made by another teacher, which was directedly related to the "simple machines" science unit they had been working on over the past few weeks. They were pretty quick to figure out what it was called, and that it was a lever. I was pleased with the attention they paid me throughout the discussion. It helped that the sub teacher, who had retired a couple of years back from that school, had a pretty commanding presence. He also relieved me of my unspoken concern about being a good teacher in front of him by leaving the classroom for a few minutes while I began the lesson. Anyway, the kids seemed fairly interested in what I was showing them, and they were excited about conducting the catapult experiments on their own in groups of 3. Since this was the first time I had ever actually taught something (the poetry reading with a class a couple of years ago excepted), I'm pretty happy about how I did and what came of it all in the end.

Naturally, once the kids were left to their own devices (so to speak) to let all kinds of objects be flung around with their catapults, it was a little more difficult to keep them focussed on the task at hand, including the completion of some written work about the catapult and what it does. The sub teacher was definitely very good at getting groups to get going on what they should be doing, but I feel that I could have been more clear about what I was asking of them on the outset. With fairly limited time with the class each week (and the overwhelming feeling I have of being a "guest" in the classroom instead of a facilitator) I'm still trying to figure out how much is too much to expect of them while trying not to expect to little. These are the things I think I should have done better:

1) I should have written the names of the objects on the board beforehand.

2) I should have given the kids instruction on how they would conduct the catapult experiment (but I hadn't really thought about it until I watched them do it, so that's knowledge gained from hindsight).

3) I should not have argued with Nico about forgetting to mention one of the objects in the baggy while everyone was on the carpet. I should have just said that I forgot instead of continuing the discussion for much longer than it was worth. I know why I argued with her, though; my insecurities were stupidly encouraged when she said, upon entering the classroom after recess, "I wish Mrs. P were here". It can be difficult forgetting that you don't have to impress every kid from the get-go, especially the ones who like to point out your mistakes.

I've come to realize that I'm going to screw things up more the less I trust myself. I seriously enjoy teaching, so I should free my self-centred concerns up a little and just have fun. Kids learn much better that way!

Finding focus

I've been watching a series that I've borrowed from the library called "The Effective Teacher", featuring a talk given by Dr. Harry Wong. He gives pointers on how to manage the classroom (which is the most important skill a teacher can learn, according to him) and encourages his audience to observe what works for other teachers and then steal their ideas. One tack he takes is to make sure the students have something to do right when they get into the classroom, such as a daily assignment that is written on the same part of the chalkboard every day. Giving children something to do the minute they get to class every morning forces them to organize their minds and their behaviour, reducing the amount of "rounding up" the teacher has to do in the morning. It also means that the teacher doesn't have to waste time by doing a roll call; he or she can see who's away almost right away, and doesn't have to disrupt the class or waste time.

I noticed this week that this procedure of giving students something to work on right away worked beautifully for a child in the class I'm working with who has ADHD. Mrs. P asked that I read with that child when he gets into class and while the morning rituals played themselves out because she noticed that giving him something to do first thing makes him calmer the rest of the day. The fact that he enjoys reading aloud increased the chance of success. So on Tuesday I did just that. He ended up reading 3 short books aloud to me, and the difference in his behaviour when he sat with the rest of the class afterwards was miraculous. I had witnessed an increase in aggression the week before from him, and Mrs. P said that his behaviour was certainly getting more challenging, and his mother was pretty eager to blame everyone else for not helping her child enough. Compared to last week, he had made a huge improvement in behaviour, and it's because he had something to first thing in the morning. It was such an interesting coincidence that I was involved with Mrs. P's idea for helping the ADHD kid focus and had heard about the same process on that video, and it worked! It's amazing the small steps one can take to make children co-operate. I don't feel as overwhelmed by the whole endeavour now as I did in the beginning, which is definitely encouraging.