October 9, 2007

Today was my first observation from my supervisor. While it went very well and I have positive feelings about I can say that the night before I could not get to sleep and my mind was in all different kinds of directions. However, once she got there my nerves were at ease as we spoke before class as well as after class. She sat at my cooperating teacher's desk and I felt so comfortable that I had forgotten she was even there. Prior to my supervisor coming I had told my C.T. to jump in as I was unfamiliar to if she was supposed to in the room or not. I learned today that by now she is not supposed to be there every period, just coming in and out which. This method is supposed to give me a full experience of "owning" the classroom and the students. The students themselves still ask my C.T. questions and sometimes I feel as if I am just the cooperating teacher and I have to reference my C.T. for answers to questions. This makes it difficult to show the students that I am the "facilitator" and not my C.T. In any case that is one thing to look to remind my new C.T. at the high school level. The lesson planned for today was supposed to include laptops with a computer program which would help the students create a character sketch. Unfortunately, the laptops were taken by another teacher and I had to modify my lesson. The closest thing to technology is the overhead, so I used that to show the character sketch I had copied for the students and together we came up with characteristics, details from the story and put them all together. A couple of comments that my supervisor made had to deal with "fishing" for answers. She suggested that I develop questions that would spark debate or discussion that have the students share a piece of their personal experience. In order to do this she also suggested that with the activity for Friday, I should put the students in the hot seat and ask them questions dealing with the lesson. I think I might just do that as well as rearranging the classroom so that all the students can look at each other while the discussion, hot seat is going. I was glad while the lesson was happening today, that their were students who participated and I didnt have many discipline problems (which I don't usually with those particular classes my supervisor saw today). She also said that she could see that I was comfortable with the students but how could I challenge that comfort level on my part? I think it was something like that, I should have been taking notes =/ For part of today's lesson I felt that there was too much individual time given to the students and I don't usually have time at the end of the period but the lesson was not planned for short time so I felt I got stuck and needed a filler. I don't want to feel that way again. While it is sometimes fustrating that the students and I work till the end of the period and still have more to cover, I am glad to have run out of time then have time to fill. When I reflect back onto my c.t. being in the room I remember feeling angry because she almost seemed in the way. I just wanted to do stuff for myself and not have any help. How else am I going to learn? Overall, it was another succussful day and I happy my observation went well. I now know what to keep out or develop with the lesson the next time she comes in. And I can sleep easy.

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Comment by Bonnie Kaplan on October 11, 2007 at 6:21am: Good work Jackie! And again, focus on the positive. Natalie is feeling great about your work and is willing to support you in the best way. She wants you to join the teaching community.
There's a lot to learn from her and I' sure she will give you time with kids for the rest of your time at the school.
Think about how you can get the kids working more as a group. How can you bring their lives outside the classroom, inside? How can you begin to create rich conversations within the classroom, where you as the teacher move out of the center of attention so that you are all learners together. Remember the flat classroom is coming!
Bonnie
See you next week.