two weeks in!

before i answer your three questions about strengths and weaknesses, i'd like to share some reflections from last week. for my ED 102 class, i am to write a reflective narrative for each week. here's my reflections on last week:

Several times this past week I felt like a big failure. I was simply angry and frustrated with my teaching on Wednesday and Thursday. Those two days I was particularly excited about the lesson, as it was a two-day inquiry into skeletal comparisons between hominids and primates. Although I felt decently prepared and had made detailed lesson plans, I found myself struggling though my lesson and could feel the consequential lack of “punch” to my teaching. Additionally, and probably as a result, I began to have some minor classroom management issues. I was discouraged and frustrated with myself, and desperately wanted to recapture the energy and pace my teaching had the first week of class.
I observe Joy teaching the same curriculum in the class right after mine. I love this opportunity, as it highlights our differences in teaching and grants me incredible insights into her pedagogy. I try desperately to soak up her class like a sponge! At the same time, however, I sometimes berate myself, wishing I had framed the lesson better, or used clearer words in descriptions. Particularly during this past week, I felt like such an amateur. And then I realized, I am. Joy has been teaching for 10 years! I am wise to learn as much as I can from her, but incredibly foolish to compare my teaching with hers. Thankfully, by the end of the week I was over myself and my amateur-ness.
On Thursday, I attempted to address some of the excess talking and lack of focus in my class by instituting a new seating chart. For the first week, I had seated my students in alphabetical order, in order to quickly learn their names. This arrangement was proving to be less than ideal, however, as many students were seated next to their close friends. The new seating chart I created this week – which divided friends - didn’t go over so well. I felt a lot of resistance, and several students voiced frustration. I stood firm, but shortly into the class I had my students rearrange into their groups from the day before to finish an activity. Unfortunately, I failed to organize them back into their assigned seats at the culmination of the activity. To no surprise, this led to a difficult follow-up and teaching time afterwards.
Friday I knew I needed to stand firm with the seating chart, but part of me felt like caving into my students’ desires. Joy told me that they were testing me and that I needed to stick to my guns! So I did. I went into Friday’s class with a better attitude than the day before, and confidently laid out my expectations with the seating arrangement. I was unwavering, using humor and encouragement to convince my students that the seating chart was a good idea. It was tough! But, I kept with it, and Friday’s class was great…my students were focused, contributed some great thoughts during discussion, and really worked hard on their quiz and during S & E time. I ended the week on a high note, and hopefully gained (more) respect from my students.

so now that that's out of the way (whew!), answers to yo' questions:
1. What do you think are your strengths as a teacher? creating a "safe" classroom; giving students a voice; energy and tempo of teaching (most of the time); relationships and use of humor
2. What do you think are your weaknesses? framing lessons (i.e. what is the context?); my "teacher voice" (i.e. projection); sometimes limiting student inquiry, giving them answers instead of letting them formulate on their own; background knowledge (particularly for the evolution unit)
3. Can you propose ideas for how your strengths may help to develop your weaknesses? make students' questions and ideas more foundational to the rhythm of the lesson; as i grow to know my students, frame lessons with direct relevancy to their lives; laugh at myself when i have laryngitis?!? (which was the case Friday, and might be even more tomorrow...yikes!); use student questions that i don't know answers to as springboards for further discussion and research (extra credit, perhaps?)