25TH FEBRUARY, 2015
Our second lesson was a Creative Writing lesson. It followed our previous lesson and the students were more cooperative than with the first lesson and my peer partner and I worked more like a team.
Students needed to be given some words to assist them with writing their story. I was shocked at some of the words these children were asking for, because I thought they should have been above that level (For example, words such as mother, love, like). We wrote the spelling of the words the children asked for on the board. I realized that I have lost a sense of reality in terms of these students’ level of language skills because I gauged from my own daughter who is five years old. It took me a while to realize that I am not dealing with my daughter (who is advanced in reading and spelling).
Teaching this lesson was a more pleasant experience than the previous lesson. Even the most disruptive student remained focused and followed directions. My peer partner also pointed this out to me. Delivering this lesson in a satisfactory manner did a lot to boost my psyche because the first lesson left me despondent and emotionally drained. I felt as if all my hard work didn’t pay off, but this second lesson made up for the disappointments I experienced in the Mathematics lesson.
The students also worked quicky, so that was an added bonus. This lesson was accomplished within the estimated duration of time. The class teacher said she enjoyed the lessons, and I appreciated the feedback. I can not think of anything in this lesson that should be omitted.
What could have been done differently, however, is devising a fair way to select which students got to share their views` with the entire class. Every student wanted a chance to speak, but it was not possible. A similar situation occurred during the previous lesson, but the students were more confrontational in that lesson.
When the Creative Writing lesson was over, my partner and I sat together and corrected the assignments using a rubric. This process took longer than I had anticipated because she seemed to be much more generous with marks than I was. Eventually we agreed to grade individually and then find the average of our marks. I learnt something about my partner and myself through that experience. Even though we differed in opinion, we disagreed in a very amicable way, and I appreciated her level of honesty and maturity.
Our turn to observe the class teacher at work came once more. I must confess that there was a remarkable improvement in how she taught today and interacted with the class. Today I saw her true “teacher’s heart.” Last day I was doubtful about whether she was serious or passionate about this job, but today she showed me that she was. I was glad I got another chance to reconstruct my opinion of her, for I now have more pleasant things to attribute to her. Perhaps when we just met her, she was having a difficult day. Perhaps she had that persona because she was taken by surprise when two UTT students were suddenly "dumped" on her. All in all, the day was a productive one. I am looking forward to next week.
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