Starting in the Classroom | Week 2 Reflection

This week, I finally made it into the classroom. After having a really encouraging meeting with my mentor teacher last week, I was looking forward to getting into the class and starting to make myself a part of things. For this semester, I will be following two classes, a Project Lead the Way class called Biomedical Interventions and a GT Biology class. Due to the school's A/B day schedule, I am visiting the school every other day for two periods in the morning. Last year, I found that it is helpful to schedule my observations so that I can be a part of a class every day that they meet, rather than skipping around and missing some days of instruction. This helps me to get a better understanding of the flow of instruction and also helps the students to get to know me and become more comfortable with me. I anticipate that it will make the lessons that I teach in these classes more successful.

This week, I had asked the teacher if I could just sit in the class and observe. I wanted to get a chance to see how she ran her class and spend a little bit of time getting a few for the type of students that were in her class. The teacher did give me the opportunity to introduce myself to the class. I made a very quick Prezi presentation, complete with a picture of a two-headed fish that I encountered while I worked in an ecotoxicology lab. Unfortunately, I think I found that picture cooler than the students, but I tried!

From watching the teacher during the two days I've spent at the school so far, I have already gathered some information about being a successful teacher. As a teacher at this school, you have to command respect from your students. Otherwise, they won't take you seriously. Interestingly, the PLTW class is made up mostly of seniors that had my mentor teacher for classes earlier in their high school careers. There is already a respect and rapport that has been established in this class. The GT Bio class, on the other hand, is made up of freshmen. The teacher is still working to establish this respect and you can see the students testing her limits. My mentor teacher is very good at commanding respect. She is firm with the students, but in a way that is fair and reasonable. When I was a high school student, I remember that I had trouble respecting my teachers if they were unnecessarily strict for no reason. This teacher strikes a good balance.

Classroom management is one of my biggest concerns as I am working towards becoming a teacher. I am very fortunate to have been placed with a teacher who seems to have a handle on her class and manages it in an almost effortless manner. I know I will learn a lot from her in this aspect and will hopefully gain more confidence in my ability to obtain respect from the students and manage their behavior.