My Second Teaching Experience

There was not much about my second lesson that I felt went well, but I did enjoy the concept of the “Comma Hunt.” I had imagined that it would go well because it was planned to boost student morale and show them that they already know comma rules without being formally taught. In practice, however, it did not go well. This is, I think, because the instructions were too vague and we did not provide written direction for the students. Just another example of how plans in the classroom will never go exactly as planned. In the peer review sheets, many of my “students” also mentioned that the comma hunt was was hard to follow. In addition to this, I did not type in the student examples of commas into the PowerPoint like I had planned. And I believe this would have been monumentally increased my lesson effectiveness.

I believe my co-teacher did well with this lesson as she seemed prepared to teach not only her designated parts of the lesson, but all of it, and could improvise when I was unable to find the right words. If I could re-do this lesson, I would make sure that I practiced more and wrote out more discussion questions on my notecards so that I could have been an effective teacher and partner. Some of the students picked up on this as well. In the peer review sheets, several people mentioned that I should have spoken up more, instead of standing in front of class silently, in order to make the lesson more effective. I am embarrassed that I let this happen, as I should have been more assertive in order to get my voice heard. This is something I will be better aware of in my next teaching experience: have a more assertive authority in the classroom.

This lesson definitely decreased my self-esteem as a teacher and I will need to work to get it back up with my next lesson. I will need to become more sure of myself and confident in order to be a good educator. I have always considered myself a good public speaker and have been complimented on my preparedness and calm in the past, so this experience did not feel very pleasant. It is my intention to be undoubtably better in my final lesson.