As usual, I have lots of thoughts about teaching this week.
First, I'd like to sum up my STL experience, and then I'd like to move into
couple other observations. My capture, analyze and action kind of just roll
into one on this entry.
STL:
1. Stick to the lesson plan guide. I'm embarrassed to admit
it, but when I prepped my lesson, I forgot that we had an outline already
available for us. Dumb. In getting everything put together, I had a hard time
gaging what pieces I should put where, and how long I should spend on them.
While I was teaching, I realized that I had misjudged the time, and became
quite flustered, and as a result of some on-the-fly choices I made, the lesson
felt very disjointed.
2. Choose your words BEFORE you teach. In my video, I
noticed that I stumbled over what I was going to say several times. This could
be really helped if I practice what I'm going to say beforehand.
3. You don't look quite as stupid as you feel. When I plan
my lessons, I always picture them being so smooth and fabulous. I seem to forget
what it’s like to be nervous, and so when I get up and teach and the nervous
energy comes, my gut reaction is just to sit back down. It’s easy to have stage
fright, but when I dwell on those anxious feelings, it can really get in the way
of effective teaching. For my next lesson, I want to especially work on
sticking any inhibition in the back of my mind, and focus solely on the lesson
at hand.
2) Just remember that it's not as bad as you usually think
it is.
4. Also, stop slouching. It looks bad.
Okay, now for my cool story.
Like I’ve mentioned before, I coach a lego league with a
couple of my cousins. We also have a couple other adults that help us with
various logistical things. On our team there are 10 kids between 9-12. There is one kid in particular, Parker, who
is especially disruptive. He is defiant, noisy, and contributes the most
outlandish ideas. I recognize this.
However, I have been really upset about the way that some of the other adults
treat him. Often, I’ll catch one of the facilitators putting him or his ideas
down, treating him like a nuisance and like he is trying to be difficult. Yesterday,
Parker’s was restless. He was way behind on his project, and was having a
really hard time staying on track. Knowing that this was the case, I went and
sat by him and decided to be his partner for the day. We gathered the right
lego pieces and started to try to figure out the next step for his attachment.
As usual, some of his ideas were crazy, however, instead of telling him explicitly
that they wouldn’t work, I chose to let him figure that out. He suggested an
idea and I said, “Okay, let’s build it and see if it will work!” I got up for a
brief moment, and went across the room. When I came back, Parker angrily
informed me that one of the facilitators had taken away one of the legos he was
using because he again, assumed Parker was just messing around. Not wanting to
cause a scene, I waited for a couple minutes and then approached the facilitator.
“Do you know where the launcher is that Parker was using?” I
asked him.
“Ya, does he need it?”
“He wants to use it for his attachment.”
“It’s not gonna work, and besides, when kids use that they
usually just turn it into a gun and shoot it at the other kids.” I took a deep
breath, frustrated at the mold he consistently shoved Parker into.
“I agree that the idea probably isn’t going to work,” I
began, “but shouldn’t Parker be the one to figure that out?”
The facilitator then gave me the desired piece and I
returned it to Parker. Within a few minutes, Parker had concluded that using a
launcher for his attachment wasn’t practical, and he began to explore other alternatives.
I’m all for boundaries. I’m all for discipline too. What I
am not for, however, is making kids feel stupid, or sticking labels on them.
People live up to the expectations you set for them. If you expect good behavior
and consistent effort, people rise to that.
Anyways, this experience was a good reminder to me of the
kind of classroom culture I will foster.
