March 7, 2007

This week was a rollercoaster ride of emotions. During some parts of the week I was very excited with my accomplishments while other parts of the week I had dropped faster than the Phoenix Rollercoaster at Knoebel's. The reason for the dramatic drop was due to the lack of doing something I should have done or doing something I had done wrong. I think one of the best learning tools for all students, although we perish the thought of doing it, is making a dreaded mistake. Ok, we do not like making mistakes, but we sure can learn from the ones we make. Planning during the first part of the week seemed acceptable, but during the latter part of the week things started to get confusing. It was difficult for me to first plan first for the week than to plan for each day because different classes progressed at different speeds, an activity day, and many interuptions, my daily plan had strayed from my weekly plan. Yeah, on paper this seemed somewhat confusing, but most of the classes flowed very well with acceptable confusion.

I am not really sure why, but I will start teaching all of my co-op's classes on Monday. Think of the learnig waiting for me! I think my teaching schedule is somewhat off, but I am ready for all seven periods. And why not, the quicker I have a full boat, the quicker I will adapt to a full day of teaching and learning. Unfortunely, this learning might sometimes come in the form of mistakes, but I will be ready. So, the most important part of this week for me was to learn from my mistakes. Avoid them at all costs by being prepared but be ready to learn from them when they occur.

Sometimes rehearsing a plan is necessary for me. I did a lot of rehearsing in IS but I have not done much rehearsing while student teaching. Planning on paper is one thing, but how this plan gets delivered is another thing. After writing a lesson plan I think I am done. But many times I am not. On paper everything seems to flow, but in real life sometimes this is proved to be more of a clog than flow. On Monday, I started my Computer Applications class on some book exercises. I looked at my lesson plan one last time and it seemed to work. But after delivering the lesson, my co-op and I could sense some confusion with the students because of how I delivered the lesson. I tried to readjust my lesson to make it work smother but it was too late. Confusion was setting in. So, I continued the lesson with much more one-on-one direction than anticipated. After class was over, I could tell most of the students had accomplished what was asked of them but I should have made for a much smother transition throughout the lesson. The most important thing I would change this week would be to rehearse some if not all of my lesson plans. I think this could indicate where some confusion could occur or prove the lesson flows fine.