It seems that 15 weeks is hardly enough preparation for a career that can span many, many years. That was a thought I had as I began General Methods in this the Fall 2010 semester at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY. Little did I know the depth of instruction and quantity and quality of experiences that awaited me.
I am completely different than when I began. As a substitute teacher, I would hear the experienced teachers either joke or speak wistfully of their General Methods class and other college classes. They used terms that, although interesting, had no definitions in my mind. What struck me thought then was I really wanted to know what the terms meant. I really wanted to know how to teach.
I awaited General Methods eagerly because of an event that happened during one class period while I was substitute teaching. I had to teach a lesson on basic division. Okay, I thought to myself, I know how to divide and maybe even a few students could imagine the process. But I was completely at a loss as to how to get the concept across. I took a chance and drew a pizza on the board and started talking and dividing it into parts. I turned around and saw many blank stares. I was stuck. I couldn't impart the information that I knew I had in my head. I did give my self credit for trying but I had no tools to obtain from my toolbox whatsoever. If I only knew about assessing prior knowledge, about how to get their attention, how to even motivate them to group together and then separate (as in a social interactive lesson with its dual purpose of instructing on content) to illustrate division!
That event made me quite eager to learn the basic tools of our profession.
I can say now I have. I not only have learned them in an academic sense but had the opportunity to employ them in a safe, classroom (ours) environment before moving the skills out into the public by presenting them during the fieldwork. I saw good modeling (you did it), I got to do it and then I got to do it for real!
I will explore my experiences in fieldwork throughout this blog entry. I will say that I couldn't imagine the deficit that would be created if fieldwork was ever eliminated from the program.
The growth in my confidence as a teacher came through my fieldwork and only after I presented the three lesson plans for real. I had drafted lesson plans in other classes but this was the first time something I wrote was actually tried out. The academic lessons became real lessons. That was crucial for me. Wow. (Can you imagine how it feels to see a play that you wrote reach production?)
I was only somewhat surprised by how absolutely natural it felt for me to be in the front of the classroom (or walking around in it) as it did. In 2005, I wrote and instructed curriculum designed for 2-7 year olds in a youth group. The other day, I looked back at my notes and my full binders of lesson plans (my own creation) and realized I was assessing prior knowledge, I did have a "grabber", and I did do development and closure. I varied each session and mixed in group work and individual work. I did this for 3 years on my own. I had between 7-15 students per class. I sometimes had a parent volunteers but I generally ran the group alone.
Was that an omen? I hadn't yet decided to return to school but I had already ventured into that field, JOYOUSLY.
The greatest impression that I am taking away from this class as well as from the fieldwork experience is that some people are destined to become teachers. I see how my own children have reacted throughout the years to their teachers and the teachers I have had and those that I most remember. The profession of teaching is a holy one. We are duty bound to live by the values and the codes that we expect our students to live by. I have met teachers that have a deep and passionate glow in their eyes when they speak of teaching. There are some, also, that show no fire at all and would appear to have gone into teaching by mistake.
Another important impression was made by the group of fourth grade students who got to teach me about teaching in my fieldwork class. They took to me and hugged me. When I passed them in the hallways, they asked if I was coming to their class. I gathered from that that I made an impression on them. I know young children can be overly friendly and maybe they hug and request a visit from everyone but a part of me hopes it was because of me! I tried, while doing everything else that goes on during a lesson, to watch them. Just to observe their expressions and attentiveness levels. I am very expressive with my face and my hands so I think that they were attentive because of my animation as well as my words. Their faces told me so. There was only the typical amount of fidgeting and I really believed they respected me and what I was trying to accomplish with them.
I believe the students should know that you want them to feel a part of the lesson. Even though direct instruction requires the teacher to be doing most of the talking, you can still talk with the students and not just lecture at them. I liked the constant question and answer checking for understanding that I did even in the direct instruction lesson.
I have discovered, with the help of the graded rubrics from my cooperating teacher, that I need to eventually be able to not only teach the content but to be more aware of all the other behaviors going on alongside of the teaching part of a lesson. I know that comes with experience and practice. The comments from the teacher indicated that for her the noise level would have been too loud and the children too active during the direct instruction lesson. I have to say I didn't mind it and she acknowledged that it is completely a personal preference. I didn't notice it was getting loud because I was trying so hard to stay on my "script" for my lesson. I didn't criticise myself too much because I know I will learn how to do this facet of teaching as I get more experience.
All of the methods will work for me. The cooperative learning methods are my favorite because long after the students forget how to multiply fractions (I was studying for the NYSTCE CST-Multi-Subject today), they will have learned how to treat other people as partners in school and in life and how to discuss differences respectfully. I will try to incorporate social skill-building lessons often into my classroom. Elementary school is the ideal place to begin this type of teaching. The younger the better. Particularly if the school's population and behavioral issues indicate that there is little social skills training going on in the students' homes.
As I titled one of my blog posts, I have grown as a teacher because now I know I can do this. I can follow curriculum and create unique and intriguing lessons. One issue I foresee is my ability to really grasp the current learning levels of my students. But I think I feel this way because when I drafted my WebQuest, the level of skills needed did not align with the students that would be using it. I knew the class of 4th graders was basically one of struggling learners, although not inclusion or special education at all. The topic was from fourth grade but I think the skill level would have been more akin to 6th grade skills. We, the teacher and I, modified it as we went along. I also know that when I have my own class I will know where they are in their learning progress and be able to design lessons based on that knowledge.
I had the good fortune to be helped by so many teachers and administrators in my local school. They all welcomed me and offered me any assistance that I could ever need or want. They opened the school computer lab and the library to me. They even let me use the laminating machine for a culminating project of binding all of the posters form the cooperative learning lesson into a giant book. I couldn't have been more welcomed.
Personally what helps me most is my family's absolute devotion to my success. My children understand that when I have the door shut of my home-office that means that I am studying. When they had homework, they came to understand that I also had homework. Overall, my family has also learned a lesson about self-sacrifice (my time away from them) but also about self-importance (even though we are part of a family, we can all have our own interests).
I plan to use my unceasing stamina and patience to carry me successfully through my second career. As an elementary school teacher, I couldn't think of two personality traits that are more important.
I already explained my expectations of the class above with my story but I will add that I got so much more than I ever expected. The fieldwork is absolutely crucial and real professional growth comes from this opportunity to observe and work with a practicing teacher. I know that fieldwork is very difficult for some students to arrange but it really makes you do what you are waiting and learning how to do: teach. I really experienced a safe learning environment: one where I had time to learn, time to receive feedback, time to change my thoughts and work as appropriate, time to exchange ideas with the others in the class, time to actually execute my own ideas in a lesson plan of your own design. Wow.
In the Self-Evaluation Rubric, I addressed my thoughts on self-evaluation and peer review. In sum, self-evaluation is crucial to growth as a person and particularly as a teacher. You must know when to revise and "tweak" your obligations to your students. You can only know what to tweak if you are honest with yourself or have peer/colleague feedback.
When I began Nature of Schools in Summer II 2010 with absolutely limited knowledge of how to use the vast resources that the Internet held, I finished it feeling confident and experienced in using and sharing those resources. Just like in this class, I began the class with only the fear of teaching division in mind, yet as I finish this class, I not only have great set of filled binders of the real tools that a teacher needs, but I have solid experience in designing and executing appropriate lessons. And, the confidence to use them.
