“Can you hear me now,” is a commercial for mobile telephone service that became popular in daily discussions. I think every student should wear a message button posing that question for teachers. [click below to read more.]
I feel like I can't teach, because I've never had success, and sometimes my lesson plans are unrealistic, cover too much material, assume students know what they don't, don't go into enough detail, make connections that are not apparent, or are just plain uninteresting due to lack of interactive activities. Unfortunately, I don't know what to do about it, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I would appreciate any advice you have. One major problem I have is lack of organization and appropriate teaching materials, like worksheets, that could help me accomplish my goal.
I already have my bachelor's and a teaching certificate for my state, but I missed a lot during student teaching. Most of my Language Arts lessons came from the book, and my lesson planning wasn't very good. Sure, I could write a lesson plan and put activities, materials, procedures, descriptions, etc. in the proper format, but implementation usually ended in complete disaster. My cooperating teacher used a humerous lecture-and-discussion style that I could not mimic at all. I froze and read from the book, and the students were extremely bored. As you can imagine, there was a lot of misbehavior and acting out due to boredom. I felt terrible. My cooperating teacher usually had to take over my lessons and re-state the same things I said, only in a way that the students understood. My supervisor suggested that I take student teaching again. She finally passed me, but I feel like I can't really teach, and this has been proven to me during interviews that called for demonstration lessons that I could not pull off simply because I was not prepared and did not know how to prepare. Again, any advice would be appreciated.
This is really frustrating to me. I was great in English / Language Arts in college, but I've found total confusion when trying to teach it.
There's no short answer to the long question you ask but my other suggestion would be- observe in other teachers' rooms. How are you with people? How are you with the kids? Are your kid skills basically good and you just have bad material?
To your great credit is that you're trying to puzzle this through - I've seen some teachers whose lessons and classes were Boring or Bad and never in their many years of teaching did they to improve or even care that their lessons and classes were Bad or Boring.
You seem to want to get it right. Worksheets abound on the Internet - many are free and some cost a minimal amount. Punch in 'worksheets' on google and watch what comes up but it's first for me to hear that what a teacher thinks they need are more worksheets... Worksheets have lost favor with modern teaching but I still use them to a certain extent. Doesn't your school have any established curriculum for you? No teacher's guide??
My school provides me with a textbook - I don't use it because I don't like it but it would make a convenient curriculum guide if I did use it. You cannot read from the book but you found that out already. In a pinch you can have them read from the book and center your class on a discussion of what was read but you can only do that sometimes - it Won't Work everytime.
English is hard to teach - it's a hodge-podge of reading and writing. Do a grammar day once a week, not more. Do a poetry week where they read some poetry and write their own. But I can't in a single post plan out a year's worth of curriculum for you. Or - go to Amazon and buy a 'teacher's guide to teaching English/Language Art and follow it? It won't be great but it would be something to help you along.
But why not try for a teachers' assistant job or a teacher's aide? That would help you build your teaching skills. > > > This is really frustrating to me. I was great in English / > Language Arts in college, but I've found total confusion > when trying to teach it.
Sorry, but another aspect of teaching with which I struggle is classroom management. During student teaching, my cooperating teacher didn't even require me to learn the students' names, and they acted up every time he was out of the room, even if it was just for a short time. Now, as a substitute teacher, I have even more difficult classroom management situations. I sometimes try a token economy where candy or small prizes are given out to students who follow the proper procedures, but, sometimes, it's still a disaster despite my best efforts. I know there is chain regular teachers need to follow, but, in your experience, what really works? Please give me specific details. What kinds of strategies and procedures do you use? I currently deal mostly with high school and middle school as a short- term substitute teacher.
Candy does not work and it worries me that you would think for a moment it would - children and teenagers are not lab rats to go through a maze for a piece of cheese.
Good lessons go a long way toward helping with classroom management as your other post seemed to know - if you bore kids, you invite problems from kids. And subbing - wow - that's very difficult classroom management.
There's no chain - every teacher has to find what works for them. As a sub, you don't need to worry about what lesson to teach - you've been given one. Follow it with a manner of being briskly pleasant, ignore minor disruptions and don't take anything personally. Kids will test a sub and it just goes with the territory.
Don't go in with a chip on your shoulder, don't expect them to bow deeply to you or kowtow. See yourself as there to keep everyone safe and don't see yourself as a sacred authority figure - to the kids, you're a stranger and we teach children these days to distrust strangers.
Stick to the lesson plan you were given and always have that lesson plan in your hand. Refer often to their teacher "Now mrs.Smith wants you to get this done today. "
Nothing 'really works' - subbing and teaching both are working with people and people aren't robots to be turned off and on when convenient. Good luck.
> > Sorry, but another aspect of teaching with which I struggle > is classroom management. During student teaching, my > cooperating teacher didn't even require me to learn the > students' names, and they acted up every time he was out of > the room, even if it was just for a short time. Now, as a > substitute teacher, I have even more difficult classroom > management situations. I sometimes try a token economy > where candy or small prizes are given out to students who > follow the proper procedures, but, sometimes, it's still a > disaster despite my best efforts. I know there is chain > regular teachers need to follow, but, in your experience, > what really works? Please give me specific details. What > kinds of strategies and procedures do you use? I currently > deal mostly with high school and middle school as a short- > term substitute teacher.
On 12/09/12, Sara wrote: > On 12/08/12, km wrote: >> Mentor Teachers, > > Candy does not work and it worries me that you would think for > a moment it would - children and teenagers are not lab rats to > go through a maze for a piece of cheese. > > Good lessons go a long way toward helping with classroom > management as your other post seemed to know - if you bore > kids, you invite problems from kids. And subbing - wow - > that's very difficult classroom management. > > There's no chain - every teacher has to find what works for > them. As a sub, you don't need to worry about what lesson to > teach - you've been given one. Follow it with a manner of > being briskly pleasant, ignore minor disruptions and don't > take anything personally. Kids will test a sub and it just > goes with the territory. > > Don't go in with a chip on your shoulder, don't expect them to > bow deeply to you or kowtow. See yourself as there to keep > everyone safe and don't see yourself as a sacred authority > figure - to the kids, you're a stranger and we teach children > these days to distrust strangers. > > Stick to the lesson plan you were given and always have that > lesson plan in your hand. Refer often to their teacher "Now > mrs.Smith wants you to get this done today. " > > Nothing 'really works' - subbing and teaching both are working > with people and people aren't robots to be turned off and on > when convenient. > Good luck. > > >> >> Sorry, but another aspect of teaching with which I struggle >> is classroom management. During student teaching, my >> cooperating teacher didn't even require me to learn the >> students' names, and they acted up every time he was out of >> the room, even if it was just for a short time. Now, as a >> substitute teacher, I have even more difficult classroom >> management situations. I sometimes try a token economy >> where candy or small prizes are given out to students who >> follow the proper procedures, but, sometimes, it's still a >> disaster despite my best efforts. I know there is chain >> regular teachers need to follow, but, in your experience, >> what really works? Please give me specific details. What >> kinds of strategies and procedures do you use? I currently >> deal mostly with high school and middle school as a short- >> term substitute teacher.
There's no short answer to the long question you ask but my other suggestion would be- observe in other teachers' rooms...See More