Monday \u2013 Thursday, I observed for maybe 25% of the time and spent the rest of the time sitting with different groups of four, choosing whichever group was the furthest behind at the moment.\u00a0 Wherever I sat, that group caught up, and then I could move on to the next group.\u00a0 By doing this, it left my master teacher free to teach in \u201cwhole group\u201d while I concentrated on keeping the class at a constant pace, supplying tutoring where needed.\u00a0 I was also able to learn more names.<\/p>\n
On Friday, my master teacher\u2019s daycare provider was sick so she had to stay home with her two small children.\u00a0 I was her substitute for five periods.\u00a0 It was a lot of fun, and I didn\u2019t have any substitute-type issues because: the kids knew me, I knew them (and most importantly, most of their names), I knew where they sat, and I knew the lesson that was to be taught (and the \u201cclass history\u201d leading up to it).\u00a0 This was so much better than a normal sub job!\u00a0 The kids stayed on task in excess of 80% of the time (~40 minutes out of a 50 minute period) \u2013 they were engaged \u2013 and they got a lot of work done as a result.\u00a0 It was a good way to end the week.<\/p>\n
On Thursday afternoon (before my master teacher knew her daycare provider was sick), we worked on the plan for next week \u2013 the week I will begin to teach on a part-time basis.\u00a0 Next week is sort of an odd week, so not an ideal week to start teaching:<\/p>\n
The reason I mention first period specifically is because I have to do certain tasks for the State of California to get a teaching credential.\u00a0 One of the tasks is to identify a class of students to work with, and then two students in particular who will need some form of attention (an English Language Learner being one, and a student with some other need being the other).\u00a0 I am to teach something in this class, but offer specific help\/modification to these two students to see if they will benefit from targeted instruction.\u00a0 The term the teachers\/schools use for this is \u201cscaffolding.\u201d \u00a0I anticipate that this extra attention will help the two selected students (if one of them would stop talking and pay attention!).\u00a0 Of all the classes, period one is the most \u201cmixed\u201d or heterogeneous, which made it easier to find two target students.\u00a0 Also, period one is still sort of waking up in the mornings, so they are the most attentive and least disruptive of the five periods of the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monday \u2013 Thursday, I observed for maybe 25% of the time and spent the rest of the time sitting with different groups of four, choosing whichever group was the furthest behind at the moment.\u00a0 Wherever I sat, that group caught … Continue reading