Tuesday was quite a day!
My teacher and I agreed that I would be able have about an hour to complete a science lesson that I had been planning. I spent a great deal of time prepping for this lesson and I was so excited to see the kids' reactions. I planned on opening the lesson using sign language and spending a few minutes reflecting on how different life would be for each student in class if they lost their hearing (i.e. how would their favorite hobbies/activities be different, what would school be like, would people treat them differently, etc.). I thought this would be an interesting way to start a lesson because the CMT prompt last Tuesday was to describe how life would be different if students woke up one inch tall. After sharing ideas, I would move onto how the human ear functions and feeling vibrations in our throats by humming in different pitches (we would talk about how people who cannot hear are unable to hear the vibrations even though they can feel the vibrations). I then planned for us to move into a hands-on activity using rulers - the students would investigate the range of vibrations and pitches of sound the rulers made while hanging different lengths over the edges of desks.
Most of this went well...
Except for the fact that my one hour time slot was slashed down to thirty minutes!!!!
Thirty minutes?!? How do you squeeze anything into thirty minutes? Especially everything I just described! I panicked and immediately became stressed out! If I were an experienced teacher, I would immediately be able to modify the lesson to be appropriate for a thirty minute time slot. However, I felt the extreme pressure of the clock ticking and both the teacher and my supervisor watching me/taking notes. I think I did a fair job given the circumstances, but I certainly do not look forward to that EVER happening again!
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3 comments:
Taylor:
First I have to say that I loved your lesson as a whole, and I can tell that you must have spent a lot of time planning and preparing your lesson. I especially loved your initiation, what a great idea!
As for feeling stressed in that situation, I can understand. It probably didn't help you either having a lesson planned so well, and being that excited to go with it, and than finding out as you get going you have just 30 minutes.
I think one of the big things as teachers we need to realize is that things will and do change, and that we have to remain flexible and calm and ready for these situations. I think with time and practice you will be able to think fast on your feet and change the lesson to fit the new time frame, while still being able to accomplish many of the goals and desires of your hour long lesson that you had planned.
Thanks for the feedback, Katie! I truly did spend a great deal of time planning this lesson and I was so excited to share it with the class. But, I do understand that similar situations will occur frequently in classrooms and learning how to manage accordingly will get easier with time.
I absolutely agree that teachers must remain flexible and be ready to think on their feet at all times! Throughout the next couple of weeks, keep in mind what happened with my lesson and think of some ways that you can modify it in case something similar happens in your class. In the future, I will just think ahead about what I could eliminate or use at a different time in case anything pops up.
By reading both of your posts and repsonding to each other really gave me a lot of insight. I am right on track with both of your comments. Taylor, I think that this unfornuate event will give more practice in being an experienced teacher.
Even though the time was cut in half, did you still do all the acitivities, just in a quicker pace? I guess what I am trying to ask, is how did you modify the lesson, if any?
Also, did you come up with the lesson on your own? I agree with Kaite, i really liked it! I was just curoius if you used a resource, one that others could refer to. For me, teaching Science is one of my weak points.
How did the children like the Science activity, the hands on part seemed like it would really grab thier attention. I would love the hear thier reactions.
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