On My Way

At my graduation party about four years ago Brett, with the help from mom and dad created a video of me throughout the years growing up. One of the songs on the video was this one from Phil Collins On My Way. I came across the song again the other night in my iTunes library, I then had to definitely take out the DVD to look at the video. Although this isn't the video, it is Phil Collins singing the song, so please, hit play and listen to this while you are reading the rest of the post.



I am not sure whether I needed to listen to it or if there is another reason as to why I need to be listening to it but needless to say, today I definitely felt like I am on my way to becoming a teacher- especially after my professor and I had a dialogue after I taught a lesson.

Let me set it all up for you. This professor definitely expects quite a bit from her students, she jabs into each student- know fully how to motivate them to succeed beyond their expectations. I have spoken with her a couple times after class about my lesson which I would be teaching. The topic of the lesson is how to enhance students' motivation. Since this class is on Tuesday and Thursday, instead of the class only being 50 minutes, I would be teaching for about an hour and 20 minutes; give or take a few minutes. I was a little scared while I was planning out my lesson that there wasn't enough material to cover that full amount of time. One thing that I have been learnin through the other lessons that I have taught is to be prepared but, don't be over prepared either.

When I spoke to Bettis (professor) about it, we discussed some ideas, however the outcome was a little different than expected. I had a powerpoint set up with the main ideas, some activities, and a few clips from Freedom Writers to generate discussion. Also, I told her I was going to demostrate through my teaching some of the strategies that were talked about in the reading. The one main concern before starting the lesson was not demonstrating some of the strategies, but I figured I would do my best and just go for it.

When I woke up this morning, there was snow outside which threw me for a loop, I was hoping the day would get better- especially since I was teaching. Unlike the other times I have taught I was extremely nervous, this time I was calm and felt as if I was ready to go. As I went into the class, I felt confident and able to rock the lesson. When class started, I ended up not using the powerpoint, using on one clip out of four I had ready from Freedom Writers and I felt as if I demonstrated the strategies that were best applicable. Also, throughout the lesson one big thing happened- it didn't feel as if I acting to be a teacher, it felt as if I was a teacher. I was able to take control of class- call out people if they were not prepared, question peers on a deeper level of thinking, run with ideas even if it wasn't part of the lesson plan, plus elaborate on their ideas as well. I didn't get through nearly all of the information that I needed or should have, I didn't even get through half of it. When I was wrapping it up, the main idea and concept, I was definitely winging that part of the lesson- grabbing the ideas from what peers said to make sense of everything we talked about. I wasn't too sure what Bettis was going to say about the lesson, I kept trying to read her reactions throughout the class period... she took me outside to talk to me...

This is what she said... she looked at me, with her piercing eyes, "YOU ARE THE BOMB!" Suprised I said, "what?!" She explained that if I do what I was doing with this class I will be an amazing teacher. I had great presence, voice, questioning, ideas, and she said I knew the material like the back of my hand. There was a couple times during the class when peers didn't understand the information and came from left field, she said I acknowledged what they said, gave credit to them and then brought it back to what I was trying to say. Also, the one thing that really impressed her was my ability to remember what people said from any point of the dialogue of the class- whether it was at the beginning, middle, or if they just said it and was important to point out later during the discussion. I thought that was easy to remember, that important information and ideas, to bring them back but more importantly give the students the credit for it as well. Bettis said that it was not easy and not everybody can do that. There are a couple things that she and I both reflected on that I can definitely improve on. The class started out a little slow and a couple questions at the beginning didn't make sense so I need to make sure they do make sense. But overall she said I blew her out of the water, her expectations are extremely high now.

Right now, I feel like I am on my way- on the right track to being a teacher. When we have taught lessons before it felt as if we were trying to act like a teacher, but today it felt like I was. I am extremely excited about it.