Reflection on Block 1

I’ve been using this blog thus far as a vehicle to track my growth as a 21^st century educator and comment on the integration of technology into the realm of education. Today, as my teaching block has come to end, I would like to use this blog as a means to self-reflect on my very first teaching experience. At the beginning of practica, I set a major personal goal for myself: I wanted to work on becoming comfortable and confident as a teacher in front of the classroom. I have to admit, I was nervous for my first lesson but, at the same time, I was also prepared and excited. My first lesson went smoothly and I received positive feedback from my associate teacher. From this lesson on, I felt like I was continually growing and learning each and every day. With my first lesson ever over with, and after my nerves were settled, I really wanted to work on the facets of my teaching. It was during the middle of practica that I really starting to focus on and improve the way in which I taught so I could effectively deliver lessons to my students. I created my Ancient Greece Unit from pretty much from scratch, trying to find all of the resources I could and attempting to try new and creative teaching strategies. There were many late nights and I probably felt the most stress during the second and third week of practica as I always wanted to be the best that I could be for my students. Nevertheless, it was a rewarding and amazing experience that was completely worth any of the challenges that I encountered. The most amazing thing that I can say about my block was seeing that my students were actually engaged with the material that I provided them and observing their interest and effort in the tasks that I assigned for them. I realized that I really want to continue to improve on my questioning and classroom management skills, and as a teacher candidate, I’m going to continually be on the lookout for effective teaching strategies to employ in the future. I look forward to working on these goals that I’ve set for myself in my future teaching experiences.

My first teaching experience...

I know…I haven’t been keeping up with my blogging…I’ve been bad! But really busy. Two out of the four weeks of my first teaching block are almost over and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by so far. Let me fill you in on these past two weeks of this first teaching block of mine. As I mentioned in my last blog, I’m teaching the ancient Greece unit for a Grade 11 course and I’ve been using the Smart Board in every lesson. I’ve been using it mostly for images and clips with the hopes that I’m enriching the content that I’m providing for my students. I’ve also used the Smart Board the emphasize important points in the notes that I provide (for example, I would have a fill-in-the-blank type note projected and then I’d write in an answer that a student gave to emphasize an important point—one tiny tip for first time Smart Board users: play around and get used to writing on the Smart Board for a couple of minutes to avoid atrocious penmanship and the incorrect spelling of “independent” because you were too focused on your atrocious penmanship…it’s not like I did that or anything). I also used the Smart Board as a way in which my class could create collaborative lists that everyone could make a part of their notes. And finally, I used the Smart Board to project a 360˚ viewing of the Parthenon that students could move around in order to identify what type of architectural order its columns were.

(Students were able to touch the Smart Board and get a 360 viewing of the Parthenon - from http://www.acropolis360.immersive360.com/)

Of course my lessons using this technology could be more interactive and innovative but, as a busy teacher candidate and a first time user of the Smart Board, I give myself an A for effort in attempting to integrate this technology in the classroom.