Something I have always thought about, something that has always worried me, and even has made me reconsider my job choice, is the behavior issues I am sure to encounter. While doing my observations a lot of times the teachers would raise their voices at the students, or tease the students. I do not particularly like this approach and I hope I can find something that will work for my classroom. I think it is important to set the rules at the beginning of the year and follow the rules, and consequences, that match each situation. Consistency is the key. If you always follow a certain pattern when disciplining the students then they will know what to expect and know that they probably do not want to have to deal with the consequences. I think that would help cut down on behavioral issues.

Something I never really thought about until my first finals week in college was evaluation, or testing and seeing how well the material was taught. Did the students absorb anything and did they absorb it enough to be able to recall it or use it in their future life? For so long it was all about the passing the class for me, mostly while I was doing general education classes. I did not really care about knowing the material and retaining it any longer than was absolutely necessary, aka, finals week. Once I arrived in the major, however, and started taking classes and actually was interested in the things I was learning, I cared more about absorbing the knowledge for future use in my classroom. I think the important thing is to make the class material important to the students. If they are interested and can see uses for the information they will be learning then they are more likely to invest in the class and really learn the material. If the students actually internalize the information then they will do well on “hard” tests, such as the one that will be given for this class. Yes, it will be a challenging final, but I think it is fairly accurate in what it is testing. Also with evaluation, I think it is important to evaluate how you are doing as a teacher. If the teachers are not doing well on your test, why is that? Is it because of your teaching, or is there a different issue? If it is an issue with your teaching, what can you do to fix it, it improve upon your teaching skills to help the students better understand the material? Teachers need to understand that their teaching is not perfect and therefore they need to continually evaluate themselves and improve upon their teaching whenever they can. I think this will be the hardest part of teaching, that it will be easy to get stuck in a pattern of teaching and it will take some motivation to cause those changes to happen.

There are many ways to accomplish this transfer of knowledge, some of which are more successful than others. I think the most important thing when preparing to teach is to keep in mind your audience, meaning their age, their background, and their life experience. If you can create a lesson that works with these different areas then I feel that teaching can be successful and meaningful. Using activities that keep the interest of the students while helping them to understand what is being taught are the best teaching tactics to use. I also think it is important to break things down to their simplest form for the students. I think a lot of times when we are good at particular things it is hard for us to explain in simple terms to someone who is just learning. Maybe if you act as though the person knows nothing about the subject one would be more effective in portraying their message. But I think with that also comes the danger of appearing to be condescending or belittling the student. That is something you would have to watch for and be careful to avoid.

As we were teaching the students I realized how much I love it. Being able to help them understand something and apply the newly acquired knowledge was so exciting and fun. I imagine that it is a similar feeling to being a missionary and now I understand why missions are always talked about as being the best two years and such things like that. I love the idea of imparting my knowledge to others and gaining knowledge from them at the same time, a transfer of knowledge. Obviously I am not a perfect teacher and I still have things I need to learn and I will continually need to improve but at this point it is an improvement I am willing to work towards.

Our class lecture/discussion was very interesting today. I guess I just never really think about the technical parts of things so whenever someone brings them up I get super interested. I had never really thought about, and definitely never worried about, salary before. But it is something important and I am glad we discussed it. I also liked the discussion about private schools vs. public schools vs. charter schools. That is something else I had never really thought about and I am didn't even really think teaching at one of those other schools was an option. I had always had it in my mind that I was going to teach at a public school. Now I am rethinking that. I still have not decided how I feel about private schools, but I have a very different, and less negative, attitude towards them since our discussion in class today. I don't think teaching at a private school would be bad. It just seems like it would be a different, yet still beneficial experience. I also think it is a good option for people who truly are teaching for the sake of teaching. The pay is typically less than public school teachers receive so it seems like you would really have to want to be teaching to take a job like that. I wonder if I am that kind of person. Do i love teaching SO much that I am willing to take a pay decrease to teach at a school that maybe I agree with teaching styles and practices more than a public schools teaching styles and practices. Then at the same time I think maybe money doesn't matter as much to me since I don't plan on being the bread winner for my family anyway. Who knows. I love the discussions we have in 276 and wish we could have had more throughout the semester. This class has opened my eyes to learning how to be a teacher as well as helping me figure out what to expect and what to look for when I go out to be a teacher.

Teaching 6th grade has probably been my favorite experience from 276. When we were put into groups and brainstorming with them I was slightly worried as my group had a ahrad time focusing on one idea. We were all so different with differing ideas and I wasn't sure it was going to work out. Turns out this probably helped us in the end. We did a great job teaching, the idea was fantastic and the 6th graders LOVED it. Having a hands on activity and a demonstration of the real trebuchet helped the kids understand the principles we were teaching them and was entertaining at the same time. The only problem I really noticed was with classroom management and control. It was hard to keep that many 11 year-olds calm and under control, which made it hard to teach them at times. I wasn't really surprised by this because in my mind that has always benn the thing about teaching that will be the hardest. I think that the key to classroom management is patience and somehow demanding respect in an appropriate manner. I am not sure how to achieve such goals and probably won't until I have some experience teaching.

Observing for Observations sake

This last observation was probably my favorite by far. I got to go to Springville High School and observe someone who was fresh out of his student teaching, fresh out of the same program I am in and starting a new program at the school he is now teaching at. Braden knew all the things we wanted to know and knew how we were feeling as he had just been there. Yet somehow, in the short 2 months that he has been teaching it seems that he has acquired so much knowledge. While he is fresh out of the program, he already had a great class atmosphere and the students already respected him and behaved for him. And he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. I hope when I am in my first year I display as much confidence as Braden.

I think when I teach I want to have a lot of group projects and maybe even a few group tests, as that is how things are once you get into the industry. Also I think it is good to have an initial due date, but then let the kids go back and change things as that is also how things work on real life. Journalists have their articles edited and designers go through several iterations before the final product. I want to bring that into the classroom so the students get a feel for that, espeically if I teach high school.

I have noticed that A) we have only gone to observe male teachers, and B) they all make fun of their students. I want to see a female teacher teaching and see how the dynamic changes, or if it even does, with a womans presence. Also, I do not want to be one of those teachers that makes fun of their students, even if it is in a joking manner. Hopefully that won't be a problem seeing as how I do have a very sarcastic personality and I am prone to making comments poking fun at others at times. Guess I better start working on that now!