Week 6 Focused Observation: Reflection of Teaching

 Nicole Tate

Date of field experience: February 26-March 1, 2024

Yorktown Middle School - ELA 8th Grade - 2nd and 3rd period

In last week's blog post, I went into detail of what my single lesson contained. In reflecting on my lesson, I am first off very proud of myself. Number one: this was my first time planning and executing a lesson in a content area other than my own. Even though I am not in a theatre classroom, I think this gives me the unique advantage where right now I am focused on the TEACHING side of things rather than the content side of things. It will be better for me down the road to have had this experience in other content areas. One thing that I think I did really well in my lesson was being adaptable. With my first period class, I had them draw a picture of their vocabulary word along with researching the definition and providing a pronunciation guide. Although they had a lot of fun with this, the drawing portion took up much more time than I had anticipated. Because of this, I had to cut out a little bit of one of the videos they watched. In passing period between my first and second periods, I talked to my host teacher and we decided to cut the drawing portion from the group work for the second period. In second period, we were able to get through this portion much faster, leaving groups more time to present their work, and leaving us with ample time to watch both videos and move on to the next part of the lesson.

One way I have already noticed my lesson impacting my students (more than their regular vocabulary assignments) is that they have deeper understanding of the words. I know this because when we have been reading the novel in class and have stumbled across some of the words I included in this lesson, they are quick to react and say things like "that was my word!". Moments like these I think are what I love so much about education: seeing connections being formed to prior learning. In reflecting on the other lessons I have taught in this practicum (when my host teacher hasn't been there and there's been a sub), I've realized a trend. Both of these times, I've felt more confident teaching than when my host teacher IS there. I don't think this has anything to do with my host teacher at all, but rather that when I know I am "THE teacher", I feel very confident in front of the classroom. When I am teaching but my host teacher is there, I worry about stepping on her toes or doing something that doesn't align with what she has told the students, etc. I think this shows a lot of growth in my SMART goal for the semester: to trust myself that I know what I'm doing. I think it is a good sign because I am not relying on others to feel good about teaching.

This week was my first week of rehearsals for my show over at Northside Middle School! Our first day we did a read-thru, our second day we did characterization work, and our third day we did a music rehearsal. Even though it went really well, I am starting to get worried that this show itself is too much on my plate for the semester, since I am volunteering to be a part of it (I already did my junior theatre education practicum). One cool thing this week was that I met with a former student of mine from Burris on Zoom (there was another adult present, don't worry) to help them with their college dance auditions! Since I have been their choreographer multiple times now for shows, and they don't have their own dance teacher, they asked me to be their recommendation. This felt like such a true teacher moment for me and I was so happy to help out. I have now written two student recommendation letters and I'm not even officially teaching yet :)