Student Teaching Observation #1

     One week ago from Monday, I had my first observation in the classroom.  It also just so happens that one week ago from Monday, I started teaching for the first time in a classroom full of real students.  WHAT A RUSH!  This first observation I had on the same day I started to teach had me freaked out of my mind.  I have never been so scared in my life...except for that one time I went to a haunted house :-P.  Anyways, in my current student teaching placement, I am working with 12th grade students in the low level classes.  When I say low level, my students are around the same age I am because of the amount of times the students have failed and most of my students (about 98% of them) over three different classes, are IEP and ELL students.  This experience was scary at first, but now, the students and I are starting to see eye to eye.  At first, the students were trying to see how much they could get away with.  I shut down a lot of bad habits to begin with.  Cell phones, not working, and cursing in the classroom are not a problem for me because I stopped those activities within the first few days of teaching.  Chatter is still difficult to handle, but they are getting better.

    Well, back to the observation; the whole point of this blog post.  My advisor came in to observe me on the first day of my teaching like I have already said.  So, I'm sure your wondering how it went.  In my mind, I was freaking out the entire time.  My activating strategy didn't work like it was suppose to, the students talked the entire lesson, the students didn't understand me at some points; I thought I was going to get a failing grade for my first observation.  After class, my advisor, cooperating teacher, and myself sat down to have our post teach meeting.  The first question asked of me "How did you think your lesson went?"  In the back of my mind, I was saying that I should tell them it went great and that I didn't see any problems at all.  I then decided to just be up front and honest about how it went.  I told them both EVERYTHING that went wrong with the lesson or the things I didn't like.  After I was done with my little speech, my advisor and co-op looked at me as though I was crazy.  My advisor then informed me that none of those things that happened were noticable because of the way I presented myself in the classroom.  Inside I was freaking out, but on the outside, that was not present.  They both also commended me on how smooth everything went. If something didn't work for me, I moved on or made up something on the spot to cover that blank space.  I had no down time in the class and that was my goal.

    Overall, I am pleased with the way that my observation went.  Since then, I have had two other observations.  The first one was by my co-op and it went really well.  The second one was by the dean of students here at my high school.  The interesting thing about this is that I am getting observed on the new process.  This observation is a long process, so over the next couple of weeks, this observation will take place.  I will update ya'll in my next post.  Until then, stay calm and teach!