Sunday, November 16, 2014
"Everyday's an Adventure, Good or Bad"
This is one of the best quotes of my CT and she has said it since day one. I have found that one day is never like the next which can be both frustrating and interesting. In someways, it gives me an ability to see which classes my lessons will work for but, if it is a bad day, a lesson that is perfectly fine may fail leaving my not completely sure if I should retry the lesson for the next days classes with some modifications or if I should simply scrap it because the lesson was not very good. It also frustrates me when I see students one day and they love me and the next they refuse to work and just glare at me for no real reason. I do use this as a way to learn about the students' lives which is the positive side of what can be a fairly bothersome occurrence. This week I had a class that was far beyond the normal level of talkativeness. They were completely out of my control and it was the day my supervisor was there. I tried every strategy I knew to get them to stop talking. Nothing worked for more than a second and it left me completely at a loss. I had tried to do a new type of lesson where I taught a general music idea and then went on from there to portray that idea in the warm ups. I can now see that it threw off my pacing which set the class up for failure and I asked them too many open ended questions that allowed them time to talk. By the time I got through all of the things that had gone wrong in the beginning, there was no chance they were going to be able to learn any part of their songs. I hated to end without finishing even one song but it would have been useless to continue. I saw that day that I was to blame and that what I did could be easily fixed but it was discouraging to have a class like that in front of my cooperating teacher and supervisor. I have had to do some real soul searching to try and determine what I want to do with the rest of my life and how to come back from such a terrible event. My plan is to take it slow. Inching forward, not jumping in head first. I will still continue to teach full time but I will not change my whole style of class in such a drastic way and I will work on speeding my pacing up to match the class. I had really only been planning for the best classes and while my lesson plan worked fantastically well for that, it left me stranded when it came to the more challenging, less dedicated classes. I will, in the future, plan out a less stressful lesson for those classes that just cannot handle the regular lesson as well as a more advanced lesson so the classes that can really sing get to learn more quickly. I am hoping this clears up the management difficulties I had but who knows. Everyday is an adventure, good or bad.
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That is a great quote! It also reminds me of a quote my CT and I like to use, "Success is a journey, not a destination." I think it's important to remember that we won't just magically wake up one morning as the educator or person we hope to be. We must consistently try and better ourselves, using each setback as an opportunity to be shot forward with growth, much like an arrow being pulled back in order to be shot. Having bad lessons can definitely be diheartening, especially in front of our supervisor, but we just have to remember that it isn't the end of the world, that life still goes on, and that one lesson doesn't define a career. The only person we have to be better than is the person we were yesterday. You have a really good concept of reflecting on your teaching and owning up to anything that you could have done better. That is an invaluable quality to have,as it will assist in you bettering yourself day to day, and even from class to class.
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ReplyDeleteI know exactly the same feeling as you with the struggles you have with certain classes. With my CT's help and the same reflection you are using I was able to adapt lessons according to the class entering my classroom (gym in my case). Specifically for two classes, both being 7th grade classes I make distinct changes to my lesson plans with far less transitions, less talking time and more activity time, along with different activities to engage them in. I have found my classes are much more efficient, constructive, and honestly much more respectful. Before I did this I felt lost like you and I felt down about my teaching, but it really is about how we bounce back from our down falls and conquer the next day. I know you will make the changes needed, and continue to believe in always becoming better than you were today.
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