Hello students and welcome to Mr. Snyder's introduction to
agriculture class! So in this week’s lab session we demonstrated what we
believe to be a good lesson for the first day of school. As we have discussed
in previous reflections and classes, the first class is key in establishing the
environment and rapport of the class.
After gathering feedback and hearing from my peers I have
identified 3 areas where I need to improve:
Clarity: I feel that my lesson took off pretty fluidly. Students
understood the bellwork and were being productive for the most part. To improve
my clarity, I should have posted the day's objectives and discussed them. This
will happen for sure next time. The bellwork question cards were handwritten on
sticky notes. Next time I will type these out and print so they are easier to
read.
Transitions: This piece needs some work. As I began class, I was
trying to discuss the bellwork as I was pulling up my video for the interest
approach. Students were able to see what I was doing so some got distracted
from finishing the bellwork. In the future I need to pull up the video or set
up my attention getter before the class even enters the room. I have mixed
reviews on the transition questions (from my interest approach to the first
activity). I myself thought they were okay, however they can be much
better.
Enthusiasm!: This is possibly the biggest hurdle for myself. I
have a very laid back personality that does not convey much enthusiasm to begin
with. I feel like I have come a long way with this in the past year. However,
my voice is very deep and monotone so even when I am enthusiastic and really
trying to excite students there is little to no change in my voice.
Overall I believe we did a good job as a class. We have
established a great place to start building from. With eleven more weeks of
hard work, I truly believe we will be ready for the spring.
One thing that I have been reflecting on lately is that we are learning effective teaching principles, not exactly how to teach them. The purpose is not to conform to one teaching style. Being enthusiastic is important but dont think that you have to get up on a chair and shout and all that. There will be students that will like the gregarious teachers as well as students that appreciate your laid back personality. That being said, I think that as we become more comfortable with what we are doing we will organically become more enthusiastic. We just have to get over the nervousness of doing something new.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michael. There is not one way to be Enthusiastic. I have a strong belief your Enthusiasm will naturally demonstrate them.
ReplyDeleteMr. Cahill is astute to see that we are not trying to program robots, but rather empower individuals to express their own style effectively in the teaching and learning profession.
DF