February 2-6

This week became increasing comfortable teaching the two class periods of Career Exploration. I teach the two classes back to back which seems valuable to me because I do not get a chance to loose any momentem. Three minutes after concluding with one class, I begin my introduction to the next class. Another valuable distinction I have noticed is that student teaching is begining to be fun and rewarding. Yes, we can all agree the preparation of the work is long and tedious, but the interactions with the students is begining to outweigh the work involved.

I am getting more aquainted with the students. The other day I was walking through a crowded hallway in between periods and I heard a voice say, "Hey Mr. Cardone". I could not see the student who offered me the hello, so I extended a "good morning" back to the voice in the crowd. It was a great feeling to have a student recognize me after only being in the school seven days and go out of his way to say hello.

As I continue to observe the computer applications class, a student sat near me in order to finish discussing his upcoming wrestling meet. We began this conversation the previous day but did not get a chance to finish. I thought this was cool because he went out of his way to sit near me and finish the conversation. It seems as if I am making a positive impact on the students. And as this week concludes, I believe getting to know the students in this way is going to be what helps me become a better teacher.

Most of the classes went well this week with the exception for Tuesday. At first, I was not sure what went wrong. As the students exited the room at the end of the period, I just stood there wondering, "what happened"? I told my co-op something went wrong and unfortunately she agreed with me. First, I thought it was my lesson plan, then I figured it had to be the students, but as I looked back on it I knew it was me. As the class started I noticed they were not interested in being in school or listening to what I had planned for that day. As I continued, the students were not responding to any of my questions or the fact that I can be funny sometimes. I noticed this and instead of trying to really engage the students I told myself I was doing a poor job. My confidence level began to diminish and my lesson plan followed. And this was the cause of the lesson I would like to re-do. The lesson I learned from that day is not to let my feelings get in the way of my teaching.