A Brand New Day~Tuesday

Yesterday I had asked Ms. Starr about finding a teacher that would let me observe him/her teach for the first block and then teach the last block. She said she would love to let me do that, but that we should talk to Joyce first. So this morning during advisory I asked Joyce about doing that for Ms. Starr and she said she would love if I would do that for her as well since she is so incredibly busy trying to do two full-time jobs. The day ended up working out perfectly. I observed 6th grade math, observed 5th grade math, then taught 6th grade math, then taught 5th grade math. The two experiences however were completely different. The morning went well as I observed both teachers while taking notes on what I would be doing during class. After lunch I taught the last 6th grade math block of the day. Just to give a little background on the 6th graders at KIPP, they have had approximately six teachers who have came and went for one reason or another. They almost take pride in running teachers off. Everyone in the building knows that 6th grade has a huge behavior problem and blames it on the terrible transition or a black hole as some of them call it. With that said, I had a huge management issue. I was the only authority figure in the room until about 40 minutes into class when the inclusion teacher came in, whom does not exactly have an iron fist. The first 15 minutes that was spent grading morning work and life work and then taking of grades went rather well. The class went downhill from there. The students were talking and not participating. I tried giving them marks, writing their names on the board, and moving students to different seats, but this only made the rest of the class laugh and the student who was in trouble mad. When I attempted to teach the lesson on how to use a protractor, it proved to be very difficult to publicly teach 33 students how to use a protractor on the overhead. The students who were paying attention could not see what I was doing. I ended up giving them their lifework and privately teaching many of the students how to use the protractor. To make a long story short, it was exhausting. I have many issues with how it all went. I came in basically as a sub and I got just that much respect. The students did not respect me enough to obey without a threat of consequences, but if I gave them a consequence they would resent me. It was a lose lose situation. Luckily, teaching 5th grade went a lot better. Ms. Starr started the class by leading the stretch, morning work, and lifework. She then officially introduced me to the students who didn't know me, explaining who I was and why I was at KIPP. She also told the students that I had just come from 6th grade and they didn't want to scare me away so they were to be on their best behavior. She informed them that she and the inclusion teacher Mrs. Duran would be walking around giving double pentalities for lack of participation and focus. All I had to do was sit in the front and teach the lesson. It was wonderful. I think that is how it should go for people who are teaching for their first time. To only have to focus on one aspect of the classroom makes it possible to preform that task well. To try to balance both teaching and management during the first session is a little bit too much. I taught the students about the basics of geometry beginning with angle and line classification. I wrote notes on the overhead as the students copied. It went well and the students were well behaved and active participants. It definitely boosted my spirits from the previous block. Overall, the day went well and I was grateful to have the opportunity to teach with two totally different experiences. I will evaluate each experience to make changes and learn from my mistakes.