Warning! Venting Ahead

Warning! Venting of Frustration ahead, warning!

Not to worry though the venting is only going to last a short time and it I think it is vital to what I have to write about and my experience in the classroom so bear with me. Last Friday I taught a lesson that I had made, a Jeopardy review game over the Rwandan genocide, and going into the lesson I had very little doubt it would run anything but smoothly. Oh how wrong I was. First off, technology was totally against me as I was having trouble with my smart-board and airliner tablet communicating with one another. Secondly, I was unprepared for such a problem to occur. Thirdly, the students quickly grew restless and were forced to wait on me to fix the problem and get the game back on track. For the love of Jeopardy, help me Alex Trebek!!

Fortunately I was able to get the game going again, without using the airliner; unfortunately the class was out of control! Students were complaining about their buzzer not working and they were shouting out answers without buzzing in and it got to be too much and I lost it. I yelled at my class and threatened silent, individual, boring review as an alternative to my most awesome Jeopardy game if they couldn’t get themselves under control. Well, we were able to finish most of the game before the bell rang and then they were gone, out of my hair, finally.

Once the classroom was empty I vented my frustration to my CT and was thoroughly convinced my future career as a teacher was all but crushed to pieces. I was really, really down after my lesson crashed and burned but my CT was able to pick me up and dust me off and give me advice that would pull me out of the depths of my self-loathing. *End Venting of Frustration*

A few things I learned from my CT:

1.      Always look for the positive things from a lesson, no matter how bad it may have gone. Yes the students were out of control during my game but they were into it and were actually competing well to see who could give the answer first.

2.      Reflect on what didn’t work, and then tweak it for the next hour.

My initial instruction was bad; I didn’t tell them my expectations or what consequences there would be if they couldn’t control their behavior during the game.

3.      Give reminders of your expectations throughout the class period.

If I periodically gave reminders to the class they might not have got out of hand.

4.      Be firm and stick to your guns. (exceptions do occur)

I am the one in charge and my rules are the rules and if students don’t want to follow them there will be consequences.

The very next hour, after receiving this advice, I was pleasantly surprised at how the students responded to my though out, and thorough instructions. The Jeopardy game went swimmingly and we actually finished ahead of the bell and had time for an extended question and answer session. Talk about a 180, I was flying high after this class and was reassured I could resume my quest for obtaining my teaching degree. J The rest of the day went just as good and every class behaved just as I wanted to my delight. It was a day of highs and fortunately only one really low, low. Looking back on that day I am glad that my lesson crashed and burned because I learned so much about how to rebound from a bad lesson that I wouldn’t have if my lesson would have ran smoothly, the way I dreamt it would.

In sum, teaching is a journey and each day is sure to challenge us and reward us just the same. I must remind myself it is a marathon and in no way a sprint and to take my time and work things out or it is not only me but my students who will suffer from my hastiness. Furthermore, don’t be afraid of failure during this time of student teaching, after all we do have somewhat of a spotter with a safety net to watch out for us. Like I said above I am glad my lesson blew up in my face because I learned how to recover from it and make successful changes with the help of my CT. No doubt there will be many more lessons to learn from in my future journey, I’m just glad I’ve received good advice along the way.