Teaching Naturally

I recently got a comment in class that utterly flabbergasted me. Forsythe recently had special "music in the hall" days where they would play music over the PA system during passing time. I was getting ready for the class that I was about to teach during passing time and I was in a good mood. There was music playing and mid-winter break was coming up so I was smiling. One of my students (I don't remember who) then said to me, "Mr. Allen that is the first time I have seen you smile." My jaw dropped when I heard that comment.

Upon reflection I realized that I tense up when I teach for a variety of reasons. I am trying to get through a lot of material and trying to check in with everyone to make sure they are getting it. Because of these things I get tense during lessons and am not always myself. I am working on getting my teaching to become more naturally and to be myself while I am teaching. I think that if I am more comfortable and less tense the students will also be more natural, feel less pressure, and learn the material better. If anyone has suggestions about how to be more relaxed or natural in the classroom I welcome them and appreciate them. Thanks.

Reflections on yesterday

For the past week I have been teaching mini lessons to the students in my math support class to prepare them for the next unit they will have in their regular math classes. I came in yesterday thinking I had some great questions lined up and the lesson did go well. However, it did not occur to me that the students might not understand what I meant by the dimensions of a rectangle. We have been looking at a unit on quadratic relationships and we started out by examining the area of rectangles with a fixed perimeter. My mentor teacher chipped in at that point and asked some questions to help me get them to explain and understand what dimensions of a figure are. I forget the exact line of questioning but it was something to the effect of asking for the length and width of a specific rectangle and then explaining that all that was meant by the dimensions of a figure was the length and width. I feel like there are these little things that I miss, like words that students might not understand. Admittedly it can be hard to notice them because the students often won't pipe up and say, "Umm, Mr. Allen I don't know what dimensions means." My mentor teacher told me that it's just something you notice after you have been teaching for a while. I hope I start noticing these things sooner rather than later, because these things can be the difference between being a good teacher and a great teacher. Plus, if the students are struggling with a word or words they will be distracted from understanding the main concepts of the lesson. That's my reflection on yesterday.