And there's Week Four...

Institute, Week Four

Okay, so by now, all the teamwork and feelings of cum-by-yah that we had going on in the beginning weeks are gone. We’re in the same Framework session group afternoon in and afternoon out and all day on Fridays, and we’re just about sick of each other and of working with ‘elbow partners’ and groups. Don’t get me wrong… I’m a team player, and I like working with others. It’s fun. It’s interactive. You get so many different viewpoints that make things interesting… but by now, our ‘team’ is falling apart. We’re sick of working with the same people, we’re beginning to get on each other’s nerves. Little cliques are beginning to form and some of those in the younger part of our group are starting to compete with their peers and with the older members as well. You know, stuff like you’re hogging all the attention, we like you but we don’t like her, you’re answering more questions than me, the teacher pays more attention to you, why? Yeah. Senseless, immature crap like that. These sometimes feel like the longest two and a half hours of my life each afternoon. And only prayer can get me through an all-day session on Fridays. O-m-g.  When is Institute over again???

The silver lining on all of this is our student teaching component. I absolutely love this time. I love it. I look forward to getting up early and getting to my classroom so I can set up everything I need for today’s lessons, make the needed copies, get the attendance ready, etc.  Since we’ll actually be teaching this week, we decide to get there early – like 6 am. So I’m up at 4, out by 5, there a few minutes before 6. It’s not even fully light out yet, with the morning light just starting to streak colors across the sky. But I get to teach today. Actually teach a full lesson (or two), and I’m so psyched that all I can see is the beauty in it. So it’s just me and the custodian, who’s opening the building for the day. I walk up to the classroom and start to get all my video clips ready for the lesson, write out my objective and content standard on the board, and take my time making sure everything’s in place for when the students arrive in two hours. I take a moment and wonder to myself… is this what it’s going to be like when I actually have my own classroom and my own set of students? Will I remember to savor this early-morning time in my classroom to get myself organized and think of all those little small but crucial things that can make or break your preparation.

We take the short gift of reprieve we’ve been given last week and use that time to write next week’s lesson plans. Six to eight of those daggone suckers. MAN!! I never, ever knew how long writing a good, quality lesson plan would take me. There were some people in Institute who could knock out a lesson plan in an hour or two, but it easily took me a good four (or more) hours to do a lesson plan that my advisor would call ‘thoughtful’ or ‘very good’.  I don’t mind putting the time in and felt perfectly justified in using that time to Google the heck out of the subject I was teaching so that I could really be prepared and actually know what I was talking about, but it’s not so easy to spend that kind of time on one lesson when you have six to eight of them due in just a few days. That weekend was killer for all of us, for real.

Lesson plans were due on Sundays by 8 pm, and almost every single weekend, I was hitting that Submit button at 7:59 and counting. A second after 8, and you had a late submission. Get ready for a write-up, honey. Couldn’t have that, so I spent my entire weekends trying to write thoughtful, quality lesson plans that I could actually be proud of and that would get the content across to the kids in my class in a way that meant something to them and stuck. I began to feel so responsible for the things we were teaching them, and when you saw from questioning and/or an exit ticket that they didn’t quite get what you were teaching, it just ripped through you, knowing how much effort you’d put into doing a good job for them. But the really cool thing is that I learned how to reflect on how well I researched, taught and assessed my lesson plans. It’s okay if the kids didn’t quite get the key points of your lesson plan this go round. Take a moment or two to reflect on why that might be – maybe I wasn’t as clear as I intended to be. Maybe I forgot to mention a key point or two in my talking to them. Maybe I forgot to use my Checks for Understanding in a way that measured whether they were still with me, or if I left them behind somewhere in the lesson and didn’t realize it. So, during my next lesson, I make sure that I correct the errors in delivery that I made the first time. This keeps happening lesson after lesson, time after time, and with constant reflection, before you know it, you’re way, way better than you were just a few days ago. I’m loving this process of learning how to teach, and learning to examine myself and my delivery to make sure I do the best I can to help my students achieve what they must in just a few short weeks. I love that the focus isn’t on blaming the kids, but that it makes us as teachers be really honest and reflective with ourselves to make sure we’re differentiating, taking other learning styles into account, etc. I’m learning so much, and I LOVE IT.

We wrapped up this week of student teaching on a serious high. All of us in our classroom did really well with our lessons this week. We were shaky at first, nervous, excited to get out there and get started but still very much unsure of our ability and whether we’d be able to do a good job or not, but it all worked out. At about our second or third lesson of the week (we had to do six to eight), we found our groove and began to get into our lessons, and the students could tell. They began to participate and answer questions, and it was good. It was reeeeally good. All said, I was so glad we had this week where we kinda had to just dive in there and get started. It gave us such an empowerment and surge to carry us into next week’s teaching, and it actually ended up lasting all the way to the end of student teaching, which was incredibly helpful.  The interaction you experience when you’re up there with your kids and you’re teaching and they’re taking it in and asking questions, connecting past learning, and bridging the new material… it’s just incredible. I saw so clearly during that time just why I chose to embark upon this journey and become a teacher. There’s just nothing like this!