Week 3 of 15: The First Day of School

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It is hard to believe that we are through the third week of the semester already! This week was pretty eventful for me, as I celebrated Labor Day on Monday, my 22nd birthday on Wednesday, and had professional photos taken with my cohort on Friday morning. Our teaching task this week was to plan and teach a 10 minute piece of what our First Day of School while student teaching would look like.



Planning


Planning the First Day of School is a lot of pressure, especially for a student teacher. After all, first impressions are everything, right? Most people can think back to the first days of school that went well, and others that did not. I was thinking about what types of activities I could do to get to know my students, while also giving them an opportunity to get to know me. I planned to give a short presentation about myself and then have the students create name tags that give them the opportunity to get to know each other better through a coloring activity. Afterward, we could transition to the classroom expectations. I know from my college courses that setting expectations on the first day is important, but I believe that taking the time to get to know your students and make authentic connections with them is equally as important. I chose to teach how I would go over my classroom expectations during lab because I felt like that would be a good opportunity to get feedback. I knew I would feel uncomfortable teaching this in front of my peers, so I wanted to stretch my abilities and try it out.





A snapshot of me teaching during #AEE412 lab


Teaching


In the lab, I gave my peers a brief summary of how the lesson would go before we got to the 10 minute piece of the lesson I was teaching so everyone understood the bigger picture. Then, I transitioned to teaching with my peers acting as the students. My activity was to create classroom expectations together and then to have the students and I sign a classroom contract. I labeled three sections of the whiteboard as “Students,” “Teacher,” and “Both.” I gave the students sticky notes and instructed them to write one expectation per section, stick them under the corresponding section, and that after 5 minutes we would go over them as a class.


My instruction was clear and the students did the activity well. After they were done, I went over their ideas on the sticky notes and tried to align them to the classroom contract I already made. The classroom contract was about being responsible, reliable, and respectful, and I was able to facilitate a discussion about where their sticky notes fit under each of those three categories. 




A slide from my PowerPoint presentation




The Takeaways 


I really enjoyed teaching this part of my lesson, but like most teaching experiences there are things I would change about it. Firstly, I would like to add a line to each of the three categories of the classroom contract and have students vote on one thing they think is important to add, just so they have more input on it, and more incentive to be held accountable. Second, I think I would try to work on stepping into my role as a teacher and be confident when having a discussion about expectations. I was worried about sounding too strict, but as the teacher, I need to have reasonable and clear expectations, and owning that is something I would like to work on. 





That is all for now! It is becoming more evident each day that the members of #PSUaged23 need to lean on each other to be the best we can be, and I am thankful that we are all going to improve and grow together.




Thank you for your endless support,



Ms. Cusate


Comments

  1. Morgan BearSeptember 9, 2022 at 4:55 PM

    Nicky,
    I love that you value getting to not only meet your students on the first day, but also getting to actually invest in who they are! Although I was not in your lab, I am sure you rocked it! Great job tackling what can be known to be a difficult conversation/discussion with students and for giving them autonomy in the process.
    - Morgan :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2022 at 4:55 PM

    Nickie, I really enjoyed reading your reflection this week. I share in being worried about balancing being too strict with the expectations that we set and not being strict enough. I worry as a young teacher that if I'm not strict enough they will view me as a peer and not their teacher. Overall, great job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AGmazing GraceSeptember 11, 2022 at 3:49 PM

    I have mixed feelings about having the class create expectation, just because I think it would go well for some groups of students and it would be a really big challenge for others. I also think it is important for a teacher to have their own expectations for the class. Though I see the importance of autonomy, I also have the realization that we have to follow certain rules in life we don't have say in because someone that knows more than we do creates them for the benefit of us all. All that to say, this is why I particularly love your expectations activity because you did have a set of rules they have to follow but you also allowed them to feel the autonomy that comes with creating their own by showing how they are one in the same. Awesome work!

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