During the first week of March, my mentor teacher was absent for several days because of a fall in the classroom. For these days, I had to manage and instruct the classroom on my own. The first day or two were particularly difficult because we had not prepared for my mentor teacher to be out, so I was scrambling to make sure that I had all of the copies and resources I needed to complete all of the lessons. My university mentor was also scheduled to come in to observe one of my lesson during these days, which added to the stress.
Fortunately, I was able to coordinate with other professionals in the school to make sure that I had everything I needed. Through email and text message, I coordinated with other teachers to get access to copiers and supply rooms so that by the time my students entered the classroom, everything was ready to go. For the most part, I was able to run through the lessons smoothly and keep the instruction moving forward, despite my mentor teacher not being there.
One thing that I noticed during this time was the dramatic difference in behavior between the two classes I had been with all year and the four classes I had only just met at the beginning of the semester. The two classes I had been working with all year didn't change their behavior much, despite my mentor teacher being out. They were still very respectful and completed the work I assigned to them. On the other hand, the classes with which I hadn't had as much time to build relationships acted up much more while my mentor teacher was out. They did not respect my authority as much and spent much more time off task during the lesson. This experience helped me to realize how important it is to build relationships with students early in the year in order to set a tone and expectations for the class. Having an environment of mutual respect is a key component of a well managed classroom.
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