Week of 10/23-10/27

Interesting week. I definitely did a lot more teaching recently and I am enjoying that. This week I had TESA 4 with Tim Oster, I made some interesting observations about his class that I can definitely relate to myself. At our ages I think it becomes very easy for us to want to just get into a banter with the talking, trouble making students. Maybe in the back of our minds we think that we can beat them at their own game, but just because we have joined the game they have already run. In the backs of their minds all they really want to do is to derail us from what we are trying to do. At one point he sent a student out of the room because they were being too disruptive, and then later went out and spoke to them. His guide teacher was not in the room at the time, so while he was gone he lost the rest of the class to some level of chaos. It makes you wonder if talking to that student was worth losing the attention of the rest of the class.

My guide teacher made an important observation that I am definitely taking to heart. She noticed that we were both becoming far too lax with our students, and they were beginning to take advantage of that. She also made the point that it was really her fault because she was modeling what she normally does, which is to go pretty easy on her students, being a nice teacher, which I agree with. However, since there were two teachers in the classroom doing this it just slipped down the slope a little too far. We tightened the reins throughout the week and it has definitely made a difference in the students' attention. Proof once again that classroom management is truly important.

I am a little angry that I was not able to do my Synergy class as planned. Mike Wegenka told me that they were unable to get the room that would be needed for a swing dancing class, and that he is hoping to be able to work me in for the next session. We will see how that goes though.