3 Days of Reality

     As part of our AEE 412 Methods lab I taught a 3 day mini unit on companion birds at Central Mountain High School. This was the first time that I have taught a class for more than one day, and well it was interesting to say the least.

    As I began to talk to the cooperating teacher we decided that it would be best for me to teach my 3 day unit on companion birds. My knowledge of companion birds at this time was zero, zip, nada, I knew absolute nothing. I quickly learned that there was little information or resources available to teach companion birds, but I managed to find a feather helpful bird project and decided that this would consume 2 of the 3 day  unit and the first day we would learn some background information about companion birds.

Now let me highlight some of the experiences and take aways from this experience. 

     The first day I was extremely nervous about teaching content that I had never learned about before. With this I forgot some of the logistical items, such as posting my objectives for the class, I did go over them at the end of the class but I left students without that direction for the entire 42 minute period. Another comment that was made to me by Ms. hack, was that I should;t be afraid to discipline her students, this is something that I did not feel comfortable doing, these weren't my students, it wasn't my classroom, and I didn't feel that I had built the rapport to discipline. Overall the first day went well, but I quickly realized one, that I had planned more material than I would be able to get through in 3 days and second I realized that 42 minted fly. I was worried that block scheduling would be challenging while student teaching, but what a lesson looks like on paper and in my mind, isn't necessarily how it will play out in the classroom.

     The second day went better, but I had to rush the students to finish their projects. Normally I would not have done this, but under the circumstances of me only being there 3 days and them having a substitute the day after my unit I had no other choice.  I faced a lot of push back from the students as I modified the project from them finding all 15 parts of the bird project to them only finding 10 parts. Next they were to create a pictorial poster with no more than 5 words. This is where I saw the most challenge, students either wanted to print images, or just fill the poster with words. It took time that I had not expected to explain the poster and outline the expectations so that the students would be prepared. By the end of the second day they had made it as far on their posters as I had hoped, so I once again modified my plans for the next day.

     The final day the students were given 10 minutes to finish their posters and then they were to present. This is where I saw my biggest weakest arise, questioning. i had each bird group present their poster and then allowed for questions, which typically here were none.  I let this happen for the first 4 groups, before it hit me that duh i should be thinking of questions to engage not only the group that was presenting but the rest of the class as well. Though they were engaged taking notes in their bird fact book, I was not checking for comprehension after each group. For the final groups I formulated a few questions, but for the future I know that I should develop some questions prior to that day and that moment. 

     Overall I think the 3 days went well, I could see improvements both in my teaching and my interactions with the class, which were reflected in my observations. When I went through the learner satisfaction forms the comments were positive and constructive. Most students said they enjoyed the project, but wished there would have been more time and many students told me that I should have made them do more work. The experience was what I call 3 days of reality, an enjoyable 3 days where I changed my teaching style quickly and worked on the practicality of my lesson plan, formatting, and time.