Today started off with a bit of a shock as Mr. Carl's daughter was sick and I learned I would be taking over the class myself. There was a sub, however I did all of the teaching and work with the class. I was a bit nervous starting off, but Mr. Carl had a lesson plan ready for me as well as materials. I added the PP he was going to keep for the other class.
Homeroom went really well. All of the students were really well-behaved and I gave them my expectations when I walked in so that they knew they needed to be in a seat and have a book for Drop Everything and Read. I was able to get all of the students where they needed to go and wrote passes for the students to go see teachers. Two boys tried to get me to let them go to the bookstore together, however when I told them only one could go at a time I found that it was an effort for them to leave class together and fool around. Homeroom went off really well and I got everything done that was necessary.
The first class was split before lunch. I went over the Lincoln Assassination activity by using the Fords Theatre interactive website on the Promethean Board. I asked students questions and got some feedback, although not as much as I was hoping for. I then had the students do the central idea activity that Mr. Carl had left for them. I found later that it would be easier to just have students underline the supporting details rather than rewrite them. I then covered Reconstruction in a PP Mr. Carl had for his honors class. I did not know a lot about Reconstruction, but I did my best to get the major parts across. When the students left for lunch I really thought that I could have done better on Reconstruction. I found a video during lunch that gives a pretty entertaining 10 minute Reconstruction crash course and had the students watch it when they came back in from lunch. I was hoping that would clarify some information and help them put what we had covered in context. Next, we did the chpt 3 sec 4 summary sheet, which might have been overkill after the video. Last I gave out the quiz and it seemed to go well. I reassured the students we would not be doing so much busy work in the future, but today was a circumstantial day because Mr. Carl had to leave. I felt bad, because I think the busy work did not do a whole lot, but it was what was left for a sub. Finally, I put up a slide asking students to email me so I would have their email address and a few facts about them so I could get to know them before taking over the class. I did keep one student after because she did not put much effort into any of the work or quiz and seemed like she did not care. I approached it by asking if everything was okay and told her I wanted her to do well in this class and she was going to start digging herself into a hole if she did not do the work. She said she was okay, but I hope by letting her know I cared and not telling her I was upset with her might make her want to try harder the next time.
I felt that I covered the information a lot better in the last history class. There are less students but they love to talk to each other. I kind of enjoy the challenge because I get to practice classroom management and a lot of the students want to learn they are just social. A new seating chart might be necessary, but for now I think it is working. I feel that the second time I teach a lesson I am way better than the first. I got to go over way more information and the kids seemed to enjoy it more. However, we did not get to the quiz at the end.
I think my first day having control of the class went well and I know there are some things I need to work on. I also understood the type of preparation needed for a 90 minute class, as well as how it feels to teach for a whole 90 minutes. I am interested now to take the next step and design a 90 minute lesson that I can teach and see how it goes.
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