McConnell-Doidge: Week 2
This week allowed me my first opportunity to teach. Monday was the day the students would be running the pacer. My cooperating teacher was out sick, but each class was able to "run" without a hitch. On Tuesday, the students started the first day of the basketball unit. Instead of students being lead through skills and drills on day 1. We decided to let the students get into groups and play some sort of basketball activity, this allowed for us as the teachers to asses their skills and see who showed interest. All the classes handled this very well and it gave me a good idea for going into the next basketball lesson.
Every Wednesday freshman are either in the weight room or fitness center depending on how they scored on the pacer. The students in the weight room were given 6 exercises to focus on during their time in the weight room. 6th hour was the first class period doing this with, and after letting the students start their exercises on their own, many struggled to stay on task. I quickly realized I would need to modify going into 7th hour. Instead, I still gave the students those same 6 exercises to work on. However, they no longer had the option to work on something else after the completion of those exercises and they were given note cards to write down their reps from each set which created accountability and that hour went so much better than the previous one with those changes.
Thursday my cooperating teacher was out sick again. All three freshman classes were back in the gym for day 2 of basketball. This consisted of learning all about dribbling. The students were given the basics of the skill and then we ran through various drills the students did this very well, and all three classes were able to move on to the game planned for them which was dribble tag. This game was great because it kept everyone active and involved and the kids all seemed to really enjoy it.
As stated in my previous blog, Fridays are Fitness Fridays! This was also the day I had my very first observation in my 6th hour class. Before we talk about that I'll back pedal a little bit. For my lesson I did a cardiovascular fitness lesson where the guiding question was "what are the benefits of cardiovascular fitness?" students would think about this question during the workout and it would be their exit slip question they would complete using google classroom.
This was my favorite lesson so far because it fell in line with "Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge – The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice." Students were able to think outside of just doing something inside the gym. They were asked prior to class to have read an article about how exercise benefits their cognitive health.
The students were able to develop an experience from today's lesson that related to the benefits associated with cardiovascular fitness they were able to think about why we might be engaging in the activities we were engaging in and how it might improve their pacer scores. They were making those connections and thinking critically while staying active throughout the class period. We even got a little old school and busted out the jump ropes.
Back to being observed I would say it was great to get that experience and to hear feedback. Especially when the class being observed is typically the class I've noticed struggles the most with directions and staying on task. Something like the warm up I had to modify and have them count off just to make sure they all didn't go down the court all at once, where as my other classes can follow that direction. I feel it was nice to get some advice on how to work effectively with a group of students who might be struggling to stay on task.
Overall it was a great week, there was one extremely hard part of my week though and it broke my heart a little bit. My three year old son said to me "Mommy I don't want you to be teacher, I want you to just be my mommy." It made me so sad he realized that I was no longer around as much as I always have been prior to student teaching for him and his baby brother. Yet I see the bigger picture and hope one day he realizes all of mommy's hard work is all for them.
Every Wednesday freshman are either in the weight room or fitness center depending on how they scored on the pacer. The students in the weight room were given 6 exercises to focus on during their time in the weight room. 6th hour was the first class period doing this with, and after letting the students start their exercises on their own, many struggled to stay on task. I quickly realized I would need to modify going into 7th hour. Instead, I still gave the students those same 6 exercises to work on. However, they no longer had the option to work on something else after the completion of those exercises and they were given note cards to write down their reps from each set which created accountability and that hour went so much better than the previous one with those changes.
Thursday my cooperating teacher was out sick again. All three freshman classes were back in the gym for day 2 of basketball. This consisted of learning all about dribbling. The students were given the basics of the skill and then we ran through various drills the students did this very well, and all three classes were able to move on to the game planned for them which was dribble tag. This game was great because it kept everyone active and involved and the kids all seemed to really enjoy it.
As stated in my previous blog, Fridays are Fitness Fridays! This was also the day I had my very first observation in my 6th hour class. Before we talk about that I'll back pedal a little bit. For my lesson I did a cardiovascular fitness lesson where the guiding question was "what are the benefits of cardiovascular fitness?" students would think about this question during the workout and it would be their exit slip question they would complete using google classroom.
This was my favorite lesson so far because it fell in line with "Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge – The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice." Students were able to think outside of just doing something inside the gym. They were asked prior to class to have read an article about how exercise benefits their cognitive health.
The students were able to develop an experience from today's lesson that related to the benefits associated with cardiovascular fitness they were able to think about why we might be engaging in the activities we were engaging in and how it might improve their pacer scores. They were making those connections and thinking critically while staying active throughout the class period. We even got a little old school and busted out the jump ropes.
Back to being observed I would say it was great to get that experience and to hear feedback. Especially when the class being observed is typically the class I've noticed struggles the most with directions and staying on task. Something like the warm up I had to modify and have them count off just to make sure they all didn't go down the court all at once, where as my other classes can follow that direction. I feel it was nice to get some advice on how to work effectively with a group of students who might be struggling to stay on task.
Overall it was a great week, there was one extremely hard part of my week though and it broke my heart a little bit. My three year old son said to me "Mommy I don't want you to be teacher, I want you to just be my mommy." It made me so sad he realized that I was no longer around as much as I always have been prior to student teaching for him and his baby brother. Yet I see the bigger picture and hope one day he realizes all of mommy's hard work is all for them.
Ms. McConnell-Doidge,
ReplyDeleteYou have really had great opportunity to move right into leading. It sounds as though you have done this with ease. I am glad you had an observation that gave you some great feedback in an area that you had already identified as an area for support. You give a lot of great details in you blog, which are very reflective. I am encouraging you to set a goal for week 3 to add more IPTS to your blog. Your descriptions of your experiences lend to additional connections that you want to make.
Have a great week 3!
Dr. Austin
Danielle, Sounds like you had a very positive week with some opportunities to teach “under fire”. A great experience when you have to fill in last minute and “run the show” I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and your classroom management with what you indicated would be a challenging class was handled very professionally and with great success. Sorry for the delay in this post . My week in Michigan has been incredibly busy. Think about a good visit day for next week and let me know what will work best.
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