Mrs. Fisher had expressed to me that the children needed some work on maps and their location on the map so I put together a lesson where I showed them their city, their state, their country, their continent, and then their planet. This was a great concept for them to review and Mrs. Fisher had already gone over this concept with them yet they did not seem to fully grasp it during the lesson. They had a difficult time because each location had two names that they needed to remember for example their state is South Carolina, their country is The United States of America. Because it was so much information it seemed to be overwhelming and only a few of the students seemed to get it during the lesson.
I found myself getting easily frustrated as the students would not stay focused and had a hard time with the information. In the future for this lesson I think that I will just focus on a little bit less information and try to present it in a way that may be easier to understand such as maybe starting with a book about maps and where they are on the map. Overall it was a great lesson learned as the lesson was quite difficult for them and they had a hard time understanding the concept. It was also a great experience as I had to control the behavior for the majority of the lesson while keeping my cool and not letting my frustrations get the best of me. I keep expecting each lesson of mine to be perfect and they never are and I have to keep reminding myself that I am a new teacher and that no lesson will ever be perfect because every class is different.
That is really cool that a leprechaun came to visit the classroom! One of the mothers of the students in my class told our teacher that no leprechauns could be used or talked about on St. Patrick's Day. This is the student that has a mother from Haiti and a father from Egypt. I am not sure if it has to do with them being Muslim or not, but I know that the reason why was because they do not believe in "monsters" and i guess a leprechaun to them is a monster.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that the reason the students were having trouble focusing was one because of the holiday and two because there was so much content for them all at once. It is great that you are taking this as just a learning experience! Way to stay positive! and I too have to remind myself that no lesson will be perfect and that I need to just do my best while teaching and then take what I learned for the next time teaching it.
Betsy, most of us want and expect our lessons to be perfect, but like you said there is no perfect lesson. Sometimes we have to reteach and make the changes needed to better serve our students. Yes, the week of St. Patrick's day was a very exciting one for our students too. It was hard to keep them focus and on task. Just like your students, they were were very chatty. But like you said, we have to remember that they are just children and the least little thing excites them especially a change in schedule.
ReplyDelete