First Attempts at Teaching

Wednesday 2nd September:

Today was my very first teaching day at Bondi Beach PS, and overall I'm very happy with the way it went. In the morning I taught two small groups in a rotation about Literacy using their spelling list. As I was interacting with only a small number of children, I found that controlling their behaviour was easier than I expected. Using strategies like:
"Eyes to me" or "I just love the way Eliza is sitting quietly and raising her hand, sticker for you", seemed to work really well. I tried my best to include everyone where possible, and made a concious effort to answer a range of children's questions, not the same children all the time. My Cooperating Teacher was incredibly supportive, and made great suggestions. I've figured out that teaching lower grades is simply about being dramatic, using the eyes and voice to get your point across. So with the two morning lessons which totalled 30minutes I found went better than I thought, so overall I was happy!

In the afternoon session I taught a lesson about the HSIE topic Celebrations, on the topic of Christmas. I read them a picture book, then held a 'brainstorming' discussion with them about all the specifics of Christmas, teaching them about mindmaps throughout - which they loved! Mostly everyone was participating, however some children were sent up the back of the room by the CT (personally I would not have dont this, as I found their misbehaviour minor). Everyone was eager to answer questions and excited for the activity. They are a very lively class, so I made a conscious effort to concisely and clearly explain my expectations and rules throughout, which I really believe made a difference. The second part of the lesson involved the children looking at the mindmap we had created and writing on the sheet I created, two things they know about Christmas, with illustrations. As the afternoon session is only 45 minutes, I found myself out of time shortly after they began drawing. I need to watch my time management skills and buy a watch, as they have no clocks in the classrooms! Overall I was happy with the participation level. I believe I used some really good management techniques such as getting them to copy my actions, taking deep breaths with them to calm them, and using postive reinforcement. I need to learn more techniques so I can include one very disruptive child and involve him more in the lesson. I was happy with the way it went, but I do see lots of areas for improvement!