First day of teaching
Not too bad, considering it was my first time actually instructing a full class of students. Of course, there were so many things that I wanted to do, but didn't (or forgot!), and there were some areas of my lesson that probably need to go back to the drawing board...
Anyway...
...the day started out with some oddities, to be sure. First of all, today was a late start/teacher work day, so I had to meet with my master teacher, Gene, by pulling him out of the last few minutes of his faculty meeting (which may or may not have been good for him, haha). We then proceeded to go on a tour of the different copy machines, as we needed to make copies of the lesson packet for all three of his classes. He went back to the remainder of the meeting after getting me set up with the newest high volume printer at the school. Naturally, soon after Gene left, the thing jammed on me. Technology! In a way, it was no doubt hilarious as another teacher walked in on me poking, prodding, and jiggling at the inner workings of the copy machine. It boggles my mind that a mere piece of paper can bring these monstrous contraptions to their knees. Further complicating matters was the fact that there is apparently at least 100 different possible places for a piece of paper to get stuck in the copier! After helping out the best she could, the other teacher decided it would be better if she just used a different copy machine. I got some more help from Madison's Principal Secretary, Gayle, and finally finished making the copies, though I figure a sizable percentage of the original job ended up in the recycle bin! Haven't had that much fun with a copy machine since Iraq!
The late start schedule also had quite the impact on the class, as it was the first class of the day for students. Regrettably, some of the kids wandered in after school started; while there may have been some room to argue that the schedule was a little confusing, they really should take a little more responsibility now that they are in high school. Beyond missing the first part of my lesson, some of these guys also didn't get my directions to take notes, though I would say that particular directive was certainly implied, and they no doubt could have observed that their fellow on time classmates were doing a familiar ritual with pen and paper.
That aside, the students were pretty good for the most part. They were mostly able to go along with my explanations and analysis, though I was a little disappointed that they had difficulty recalling things they had gone over in class a mere week ago. A lot of them tended to be hesitant to volunteer answers and I have to admit to a little frustration at the wording and layout of some of the questions on the learning assessment sheet, as they led to student confusion. I guess that is to be expected in some ways, as Gene is working with a new pilot curriculum in this unit. This is certainly something I need to think about for my future lesson planning - not tossing out quite so many head-scratchers for the students!
Anyway...
...the day started out with some oddities, to be sure. First of all, today was a late start/teacher work day, so I had to meet with my master teacher, Gene, by pulling him out of the last few minutes of his faculty meeting (which may or may not have been good for him, haha). We then proceeded to go on a tour of the different copy machines, as we needed to make copies of the lesson packet for all three of his classes. He went back to the remainder of the meeting after getting me set up with the newest high volume printer at the school. Naturally, soon after Gene left, the thing jammed on me. Technology! In a way, it was no doubt hilarious as another teacher walked in on me poking, prodding, and jiggling at the inner workings of the copy machine. It boggles my mind that a mere piece of paper can bring these monstrous contraptions to their knees. Further complicating matters was the fact that there is apparently at least 100 different possible places for a piece of paper to get stuck in the copier! After helping out the best she could, the other teacher decided it would be better if she just used a different copy machine. I got some more help from Madison's Principal Secretary, Gayle, and finally finished making the copies, though I figure a sizable percentage of the original job ended up in the recycle bin! Haven't had that much fun with a copy machine since Iraq!
The late start schedule also had quite the impact on the class, as it was the first class of the day for students. Regrettably, some of the kids wandered in after school started; while there may have been some room to argue that the schedule was a little confusing, they really should take a little more responsibility now that they are in high school. Beyond missing the first part of my lesson, some of these guys also didn't get my directions to take notes, though I would say that particular directive was certainly implied, and they no doubt could have observed that their fellow on time classmates were doing a familiar ritual with pen and paper.
That aside, the students were pretty good for the most part. They were mostly able to go along with my explanations and analysis, though I was a little disappointed that they had difficulty recalling things they had gone over in class a mere week ago. A lot of them tended to be hesitant to volunteer answers and I have to admit to a little frustration at the wording and layout of some of the questions on the learning assessment sheet, as they led to student confusion. I guess that is to be expected in some ways, as Gene is working with a new pilot curriculum in this unit. This is certainly something I need to think about for my future lesson planning - not tossing out quite so many head-scratchers for the students!
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