Next week will be the first that I begin taking over classrooms. I will have three sections of LA 2 and one section of LA 1. I am both nervous and excited at the same time.
This past week has been all about the planning in terms of getting ready for the coming lessons. I find that actual planning, especially in terms of putting together a unit, is much different than the lesson planning that instructors had me do in college courses. It always seemed like the majority of the time in college courses I was required to write a single stand alone lesson plan, but a teacher doesn't give single stand alone lessons. Each lesson kind of flows into the next as it is all about the overall unit. Another bit of advice that I was told a lot in college classrooms is to always prepare more than you can actually do in a given class period. This way as a teacher I don't run out of things to do in a given period and have free time for the students. It seems like with planning a unit that I would unlikely run out of activities for a class period as I could just move into the next days work if possible. I'm sure I'll learn more as I put my lessons into practice.
During the past week I have also spend quite a bit of time working one on one with my students. On several occasions my afternoon CT will assign group work to the students and then let me be the one who addresses their questions. As with anything the more I work with the students the better I get. It seems like it's all about asking the right questions. When done properly the right questions allow me to get the students to come up with the correct answer on their own, without me just giving it to them outright. The tough part though is realizing what these 'right' questions are; some times I'm spot on, other times I struggle.
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