Growth as a Teacher

For the requirements of the Methods and Materials of English class at Southern Arkansas University, I had the opportunity to create three separate lesson plans to teach to both seventh grade students and my college classmates.  Each lesson presented at the college was video-taped.  After reviewing the tapes of my teaching, I discovered differences between each lesson that I was unaware of.  There are not many, but I have compiled a list to illustrate what I believe to be my growth as a teacher.

The first lesson that I taught was on descriptive writing.  I taught first to the seventh grade students at Springhill Junior High School in Springhill, Louisiana, and then to my classmates at S.A.U.  I thought that I would have it easy at the college since I had already taught the lesson once.  Apparently, things did not go as smoothly as I thought they had.  Actually, I thought that this was the best lesson that I had taught, but I quickly changed my mind.  The entire presentation seemed like a script.  I talked the entire time, I did not get enough student input, and it seemed as if my entire lesson was manufactured.  I looked uneasy in front of the class, and I acted nervous.  Also, the lesson did not give me many opportunities for further teaching.  It seemed as if the only things that the class could learn were exactly what was written on my outline.  Though I think that I was best prepared for the material on this lesson, I do not think that I presented it in the best way that I could have.

My second lesson was a little better.  It was a grammar lesson entitled, “Grammar Survivor.”  The seventh graders loved this lesson.  They had a good time.  The college students enjoyed it, also.  While presenting this lesson, I remember feeling nervous.  I was not sure if some of the answers that students gave were correct or not.  One time, one of the students wrote a sentence that stumped me.  I had to check myself to see if she was correct, and she was.  I gave her team an extra point.  That adaptability is where I believe I was strongest in this lesson.  Several opportunities presented themselves for extra learning, and I took advantage of most of them.  Though this was obviously the lesson that I was most unsure about, I did seem more relaxed as a teacher.  I stepped down from being the central character in the front of the room, to a more personal gameshow- like personality.  The students seemed to feel a little more at ease with this type of teaching, and I was glad to see that.

My final lesson was taught only to the college students, the reason being that it was a lesson on adolescent literature.  The seventh graders had not read either book that my presentation covered, but the college students had.  Though they had read only one of the books, I adapted the lesson to teach to them in a way that they could still do the activities.  Of the three lessons, this one was my favorite.  I really like the activity that I required. It involved the students, and gave the possibility for them to think from different viewpoints. It was also fun.  I was surprised at how well the lesson went.  I had prepared less for this one, and it was also the one that I was the most worried about.  However, it went well.  There were many opportunities for me to teach further.  As I taught, questions would pop into my head to ask to initiate a conversation with the students about the particular characters being discussed.  In doing so, students were provided with different possibilities and perceptions concerning the novels that were read.  I looked and sounded more relaxed as I taught.  It seemed natural.