Week 3: Teaching Begins!

After a week of observations, I began teaching two sections of Natural Resource Management this week. Both of these classes are all ninth graders where we learn about the environment and agriculture's impact on each other. We were learning about land use and urbanization. I am excited to see where our discussions go throughout the rest of the semester on land use and urbanization.

Along with teaching the classes in Natural Resource Management, I had the opportunity to practice dissecting an earthworm. In a few weeks, I will be dissecting an earthworm with the ninth graders. Now that I have a better understanding of what the anatomy of the worm looks like, I can explain the topic to my students better.

Throughout this week's teaching episodes, I found a few things that I think went well, and a bunch of things I want to work on improving throughout the remainder of my student teaching internship. I think I did a good job of preparing for the lessons. I am creating my lesson plans to cater to the needs of my students.

As far as things I can improve on, the list is long! I am excited to try a few different methods out throughout the next 12 weeks of student teaching. Some items I want to work on in particular are:

1. My discussions during class

2. Having back-up ideas when (not if) technology fails

3. Keeping on track of the timing of the lessons

Now that I have a few specific ideas of where I want to improve, I can better focus my attention on these topics. Next week, I am excited to be in the classroom on Monday and Friday. From Tuesday to Thursday, I will be in Atlanta, GA for the IPPE Conference with the Food Science CDE team. Check in next week to see how it went!

For this week, I have two questions:

What information do you think is important to include when leaving substitute plans for a 3 day trip?

How do you ensure the students that are on the trip are not falling behind in their other classes?