Motion

Today was a good day, but I realized how hard the teaching part of teaching really is.

My classes were pretty good all day (although I didn't have my homeroom, so it was a biased sample). One of my classes went over the Unit 1 Assessment, but two of my classes started Unit 2: Forces and Motion. Today, the introduction, involved learning what motion is (motion is a change in distance to a reference point). That was a remarkably difficult concept to teach. It involved a lot of throwing a tennis ball around, and I still don't think I had sufficient mastery. I'll have to weave the idea into future objectives (how to calculate speed, the difference between speed and velocity). All in all, it was really fun to be teaching science. It's challenging, but it was fun.

One of my usual suspects was behaving exceptionally well today, sitting quietly and participating when asked. He even scored 100% on his exit ticket. On the way out of the room, I asked him for his home phone number so I could relay the good news to his mother. And then I left the number at school. Sorry! I'll call tomorrow!

Another class was visited by my school mentor, the music teacher. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of my better planned lessons. It was a lesson on my scientific inquiry rubric, and involved letting the students work in groups to grade a lab report using the rubric. I don't think they really internalized the rubric, but they did begin to understand how I grade assignments. I guess it's a start.


I also got to observe my mentor teaching this morning. She has a MUCH tighter handle on her class, but I noticed a few things. 1: She has a strict routine that she follows every day wither her students. They know what to expect and how to behave. 2: My trouble students also don't participate in her class, but she puts them off to the side and ignores them (and doesn't let them play the drums). 3: She has to remind her students constantly of the expectations. I should do that more.

In response, and on the advice of my TFA adviser, I am in the process of creating a poster listing the different parts of class and the expectations during them (Do Now, New Material, Group Work, Independent Practice, etc.). I also have redone my consequences list, leaving fewer chances for error. The students no longer have 5 points to lose. Now, they get 2 verbal warnings before receiving a phone call home. Hopefully this will get class moving better.

My new teacher training this Thursday was cancelled, so I'm trying to decide whether to move the lessons up or to keep Thursday as Mythbusters day. I may move that to Friday, but otherwise continue as planned. Or, I can keep the extra day to catch up for the 1-2 weeks that I am behind.

I think, I hope, I'm getting the hang of this. Now I'm off to my first-ever spin class. Let the sweating begin!