Monday through Thursday were normal
Friday was an Act 80 Day
Things I Learned
- be flexible with everything you do
- make sure you secure times where students can come down and have enough time to make up a test if they need to
- IT IS OKAY IF YOU MESS UP. IT IS (NOT) OKAY IF THEY FAIL A TEST. This may be an "out on the limb" statement but...at one point in time during student teaching maybe in a teachers first year (even the veteran/"up on a pedestal" teachers) probably had almost all students fail a test or at least had to reteach material. It happens. You are still learning, there is "room" for you to mess up. Just correct it!
- Again, breathe.....it will be okay. You will get through it. Remember the why (when the students actually get it).
Advice Wanted
- How do you deal with going back and reteaching concepts? What if you thought they got it/they showed they got it before but then on the test they didn't? Specifically, I had almost 2 full days of instruction on calculating how many pounds of N, P, and K were in a 50 pound bag of fertilizer and a lot of them still didn't get it. How would you handle something like that?
- I found it a bit weird coming back after a week off. It was hard for me to get back into the groove of teaching. What advice do you have for getting back into teaching, especially coming back to a full load? (obviously that's what it would be like in a job in the future)
One of the strategies I use for getting back into the groove of teaching is giving myself a cushion day of sorts. For example, I was out on Monday and Tuesday this past week. I scheduled a project in conjunction with the Media Specialist for 4 of my six classes on Wednesday. This allowed me to come back, read any notes from the sub, see where students were at, be physically present, but also have her doing a fair portion of the work as I transitioned back in.
ReplyDeleteReteaching can feel awkward. It's about being honest though and sharing with students you aren't satisfied with the test results and want to review some areas you noted they struggled with. (i.e. what were you seeing them get consistently wrong on the test?) Find another way to teach the concept and try again. Maybe look towards the students who did well on the test and try a strategy where they are a peer expert sharing the concepts with their classmates as you reteach. Possibly something they thought of in their teenage way is what made it stick for them and their strength in getting it can help their classmates.
PS - Why do you say its not okay if they fail a test? If the whole class fails, that's something to look at (It could be the wording of a question and not the actual concept itself). If one or two students fail, there's not a need for whole class reteaching but finding a way to reach where they are.