My last week at Danville High School was by far the best of all of them. I felt like I planned my lessons with a much better understanding of how much the students can learn in 50 minutes. Except for one period where I was much too ambitious with the activity I planned for the students to complete, I think I prepared just the right amount. There weren't as many discipline problems as past weeks, but of course there still were some. In addition, the students performed fairly well on the assessments I gave on Thursday (quizzes for the Algebra 2/Trig students, tests for the Algebra repeaters). All in all, I'd say I developed a better sense of how to teach at DHS last week.
And then I left :(
Whereas I'm looking forward to starting a new experience at Jefferson Middle School, I'm disappointed that I couldn't stay at least one more week at DHS. There's this thought in the back of my mind that maybe last week was a fluke, that the stars aligned for me. I would have liked to have one more week to see if I truly had taken my teaching to a new level. Now, I'll have to introduce myself to a new group of students and go through some of the same adjustments I had to go through seven weeks ago. I suppose if I indeed have learned from my experiences that the first couple of weeks at JMS won't inflict quite so many growing pains. And, yikes, there were so many at DHS.
I really don't know where to start when it comes to what I'll take away from my experience. I've learned I need to be more consistent and assertive with my discipline. A plan of action would help me know what I want to do in certain situations if/when they arise. I've also learned that you can't make every lesson spectacularly brilliant as I am wont to do. There were lessons I spent upwards of 3 hours working on, and that just can't happen consistently. ("Should it happen at all?" is also a good question to ask.) Furthermore, I realize that having a procedure for grading homework is vitally important. Do students get time to work on it in class? Do they get graded on completion, correctness, both? If both, when does each happen? There are so many questions to ask.
One of the most significant lessons I learned came on the last day of class. I had not the greatest end to my very good week. The Algebra 2/Trig classes were not very respectful, and the Geometry class was, well, how it usually was: some very on-task and others very clueless. The Algebra class, however, was thoroughly engaged with my oddball lesson on a game called NIM. I learned the game during my second semester here, and I've found it to be a very, very good way to introduce students to induction. I really enjoyed teaching the Algebra repeaters on Friday. It had to do partly with the lessons I prepared for Friday, but they were consistently the group I liked to teach the most. They really seemed to appreciate it when I did different styles of teaching with them. Though they had some major behavior issues, I feel like as a group they had more curiosity than the other classes. The Algebra 2/Trig classes seemed to want to just memorize the formula and get on with it; the Geometry class... I still don't understand that group; but the Algebra 1 class was fun to teach. They showed me more of their personalities. Even one student, whom I saw a total of three times throughout the seven weeks, seemed to reveal more of who he is to me than a majority of the students in the other classes. I think what I learned was that those are the kinds of students I should teach.
Now, mind you, this is just still a thought, but I've been strongly considering teaching with a foundation that would set me up with a yearlong learning experience in a school of need in Chicago. Then, I would probably find a job at one of the "turnaround" schools that they run in Chicago. I'm feeling more like this is the direction I should go, but I'm still very unsure. I don't know when I'll know for sure what I want to do. Maybe two weeks. Maybe two months. Hopefully not two years!
For now, I face another new beginning tomorrow.
1 comment:
My kids went to Jefferson, so a bit of Deja Vu reading this. Fortunately, they've graduated. It would be too weird if you had them in your class.
I don't think you can know till after you know. When I went to Econ grad school I told myself I'd just do it for a while and not make any judgment about it so I wouldn't shortchange myself by not working hard enough. I did some sort of assessment around Winter break and by then I was hooked. We did have quite a bit of turnover in my class. (27 started but only 13 returned the following year to sit for prelims.) So it was rather brutal. But you couldn't focus on that and get through it.
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