(This happened on the week of Oct.7. I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to publish this post.)

Friday

On Friday, my cooperative teacher lets me teach the children by reviewing what they had learned throughout the week. I was a bit nervous, but I soon felt comfortable while teaching both the morning and afternoon class. During center time, Ms. L rotate the tables for each center and I was placed with the pins, where children practiced their sequencing and pattern skills. However, I wasn't so lenient and let them create what they wanted as well. During the morning class, the children seem to like the idea of measuring and the topic of snakes came up a lot as the groups rotated. During the afternoon, the topic of snakes, chameleon and camouflage were repeated throughout the different groups, which gave me the idea of focusing in "reptiles" for the mini-teacher workshop project that I have to complete as part of my Student Teaching experience. I was surprised  how much some children  knew about the process of camouflage and what animals used it and why these animals use it for. 

Monday

On Monday, I had my first observed lesson and I was quite nervous, but I learned so much. I learned that as a teacher, you need to be attentive of yourself and how you word questions and create activities. Sometimes, the activity and assessment that you are planning or doing would not always work and you need to be able to change it at the moment and adjust it if necessary. This is something that I experienced during the morning class with the 'story sequencing' activity that I planned  to use as a whole group. First, I used too many pictures and the children weren't understanding what I was asking them to do because it was too much for them.

This was the activity before the adjustment made.

Second, I wasn't wording and explaining the activity well enough for all of them to understand. Yet, I was able to adjust the activity by focusing on the numbers rather than the images. This observation and Ms.L suggestions helped changed my assessment and activity for the afternoon class.As I was observed , I was able to keep the children's attention during the activity and comprehension of what I was trying to do. I minimize the number of images and explain each picture to them and cited back the book and asked them questions of what they remember happened first and so on. Also, I learned that when reading a book, you need to be able to portray the emotions the characters might be feeling in order to capture students' attention.

This first lesson was such a great experience for me and I was able to learn and adjust myself in the moment for the benefit of the students. I realize that it's not all about what you plan on a piece of paper, but what the children will learn and how they learn. Sometimes what's plan won't go accordingly and you need to be flexible and open-minded to adjust the lesson or activity at the moment. Anyone can become a teacher, but not everyone can teach, it takes more than making the perfect lesson plan and activities. It takes love, creativity and most of all, it takes courage to change for the benefit of the children and their learning. You must come to realize that it's not all about you, but what the students will get from the lesson, the experience and how it will affect them. I believe that we as educators must be open for changes, suggestions both from other teachers and from our own students, whom every day teach us how to teach them.

  

Image of the activity after adjustment was made.

For this lesson, I had the children cut out this image and trace the eggs I draw (not on the image ). The lesson was the introduction of the color green and oval shape, so that's why I decided to read this book. The activity purpose was for them to use their fine motor skills to cut and trace. 

This activity can be found on Seussville

  

So, what about you? Have you ever planned something that you had to change at the last minute? Tell me about it on the comments bellow and like always, I hope you all enjoy this post!