Days 5 and 6: Taking over and Teaching Literacy

• by Amnah Hzaiyen
• Friday, February 28, 2020

     As the semester is passing by in a blink of an eye, I feel like it's truly time for me to step in and begin to take over the classroom. I am still very shy and hesitant to do so, but I decided this week it was time to make those baby steps. On Tuesday, I began to teach small group lessons as a way to make myself feel more comfortable and confident in teaching the whole class. This truly gave me insight on the different types of learning and behavior in the classroom by working with different students individually. I now have a better understanding on how to work with certain students and in which ways they work best. My goal for this week was to begin taking over a whole school day, especially in other subject areas besides literacy which is the subject my CT teaches. I've been hesitant to take over math and science/social studies but by next week I am truly hoping to be the one to instruct with my CT's by my side. Another goal of mine is to begin to put more focus on the different needs of the students. I taught my lesson this week, and with that it gave me insight on what specific needs need to be addressed for all of the students to be engaged. I want to learn to not pass by students who aren't participating, and find ways to get them to participate and enjoy any lesson I teach to them.

     On Thursday, I taught my first lesson to the classroom. I taught my first whole group literacy lesson. My lesson was on IAR test practice, which I was very hesitant to teach. The students were a lot more engaged than I had assumed they were going to be which truly gave me the confidence of taking over the whole school day. As well, the students also seemed to really enjoy me teaching and seemed very excited to hear that I was going to be working on something with them. At the end of my lesson, a few of the students came up to me and asked me if I could be the teacher and it warmed my heart to hear that they enjoyed seeing me standing up in front of the class. With that insight from the third graders, I feel more comfortable in finally taking over the classroom because it make me feel like they will become excited and look forward to seeing me on Thursdays throughout the rest of the semester.