This week went pretty well! my students had a lot of fun in the activities they did in my science class (lego building, outdoor shipwreck, watched Rube Goldberg machine video and observed an oil-boom experiment). My first read-aloud of a picture book called "Ira says goodbye" in my "All about me" lesson was a success, the class was with me and fully engaged.
My classroom management skill definitely improved a lot. I've tried several strategies: clapping hands, waiting time, 8 seconds count down, putting hands up or sometimes on my head, walking to the student who is talking. These strategies all works well depending on the situations.
There are serveral things I learned this week. First, some students like to shout out answers, and sometimes I get carried away that they were so engaged in answering questions. I then responded to their "shout outs"which discouraged students who had their hand up and acknowledge the "shout out" behavior. Secondly, I find doing a detailed lesson plan is really helpful in preparing a good lesson. writing the order of the tasks and questions to ask on a paper as a reminder is very useful as well. I have a tendency to rush when I explain things. Sometimes I feel I ran-out of things to say and I stand in front of the class looking awkwardly and trying to think what's the next step on my lesson plan. My AT also explained to me that plaining tasks in order is very important, because it might interrupts the "flow" of learning and loose students' attention. In one of my lesson, I was explaining the contents, then I asked my students to get their science notebook out and write down some important information. Immediately they stopped listening and started chatting while they get their notebooks. what I should have done was to ask them to have their notebooks ready before I start the lesson. I'm still not very comfortable teaching science, I find I don't have enough knowledge about the contents I'm teaching, especially when I get challenged by students' wonderful questions. Occasionally, my AT would step-in and help me. She always has these wonderful personal stories that she can make connections to the lesson. I wish I can have too, but again, she reminded me that all these stories and knowledge comes from experience and age.
It sounds like you are getting better and better Yilin. I am also not very comfortable teaching science - so it is good that I have been getting some practice at it. I feel like for my next science lesson I should change it up a bit in terms of how I get the students to work. So far I've been getting them to work in groups and to write their findings on place mat style chart paper. We've done it for 3 lessons. So I'll have to think about something different for the next one. Have a great 3rd week :) I like the swimming fish you have at the top of your blog. You always find cool things like that to add to your things. I have to sit with you some time to learn some cool computer stuff some time. Maybe if we both do the music AQ or the ORFF class :)
ReplyDeleteMaryem
Yilin - I hear you loud and clear! It's intimidating teaching a subject and facing student questions when you aren't 100% sure. I generally stay pretty honest with the kids... I'll say something like "you know what? I'm not sure! Does anyone know the answer to Gillian's question?" or "That sounds like something you could look up on the internet tonight. Can you bring us an answer tomorrow to share with everyone?". One day, I even did that with a simple question I did know the answer to... the students couldn't figure out if a seven-sided polygon was a heptagon or a septagon, so I told them to look it up at home. There's always a few who LOVE being able to run into class the next day saying "I found the answer!" and getting to share it with the class.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear more of your stories!