Weekly Journal Reflection – “A learning-rich culture provides opportunities for risk taking, productive failure, and celebrated successes for both learners and teachers.”
This quote spoke to me as a teacher candidate as it takes courage to take the unbeaten path and teach something new and in your own style, while being invited as guest teacher into someone else’s classroom. Adding that I will be also formally evaluated on my performance, it is probably natural for me to feel nervous about taking risks. However, I think that I will take some calculated risks as I attempt to teach something new. These risks should respect all parties involved— the students, the counseling teacher (CT), and myself.
As a ESL teacher, my style of teaching of English grammar is probably more technical than how English is typically taught when it is the student’s first language. English-speaking children who are immersed in the language will often already know when a word sounds wrong or strange. In contrast, an ESL student has no way of knowing this, so such students need more explicit instruction and modeling to reach the same conclusion.
Another mentor teacher told me that in elementary school, the attention span of students tends to be 1 minute per year of age. This means to keep my students engaged in the lesson, I should not overwhelm them will too many explicitly modeled examples. I will try to keep my instruction period brisk before moving on to an activity that allows students to practice what was taught. I also need to be mindful of transitioning time, which can be a challenge for me. Managing the classroom effectively, using an efficient and effective formative assessment, and having a clear understanding of what my students’ foundational knowledge is prior to the lesson, should help to maximize our “celebrated successes” avert some of those “productive failures.”
References
Erkens, C.; Schimmer, T. & Vagle N.D. (2017). Essential assessment:six tenets for bringing hope, efficacy, and achievement to the classroom.