Well, I made it through a week of teaching (not to mention the end of a six week module) without any difficulty. On the whole, the classes treated me well, and I was able to complete everything I had set out to do (Basically teach a chapter from start to finish); even with the ELL class. All the classes kept on pace. I even had fun!
All this week, we talked about humanities from the 1800s, so we did a little art, music and literature. I wrapped-up today (being a minimum day) by showing a preview video of the next chapter, then and collecting / passing out classwork.
This week, being the week I taught all classes, was the week I’d concentrate on learning some classroom management skills. I had already tried “The Spot,” which was mostly successful (My master teacher noted that once I stepped out of the spot, the kids would start talking again, so based on her suggestion, I revisited the rules and demanded that they stop talking until given permission. It worked better after that.). This week, I would also hand out detentions when needed and I would be a bit firmer in my tone. The detentions worked just fine. My tone was sort of hit and miss, though I did see a significant improvement in the class when I got a bit more strict. The other thing that I did, almost on a whim, was to write down a quiet bellwork assignment and a noisy bellwork assignment at the beginning of the class period, with the noisy one being much more involved. Much to my surprise, the class took this as a clue to be quiet. The class also became self-monitoring: any kid who started talking would be shushed by the rest of the class. I didn’t have to do a thing! By giving the students a choice, the students were self-selecting the easier assignment and demanding that everyone else obey the rules so they could enjoy this privilege. It was brilliant – a truly happy accident! It worked so well, I did it the next day in class with the same results (Rules: the quiet assignment is silent and only three sentences. If you talk, it goes up to five, if you continue to talk; the class does the noisy assignment, which is closer to 15 sentences).
After classes today, I got in touch with my next master teacher. He and I went over what I would be doing for module two. He already has the next six weeks planned! My new master teacher is much more regimented than my old master teacher, but he also does a lot of hands on things and his lectures are interesting (at least to me). I had a chance to observe him teach his ELL class some time ago, and I was very impressed how he could manage the class, teach, and still offer individualized help when needed. I’m going to really enjoy learning from him!
He also gave me homework: I have to read three chapters from the textbook (teacher version) to become more familiar with what we will be teaching over the next six weeks.