Blog #10 Group Teach

We officially had our last meeting tonight and I think it is safe to say that we are all ready to present our lessons.  If for no other reason, it will be good to relieve all our anxiety!  I know we have all said it, but I must say again how difficult it can be to plan.  Take, for example, the time involved for individual lessons.  That is really hard to predict.  I personally keep thinking that there will be something that either goes very quickly and takes no time or else much more time than we thought.  The other difficult issue in a long class period is the transitions between lessons.   We all see teachers transition on a daily basis, and for the most part probably don't notice or think about a strategy on the part of the teacher.  But now, when planning this, it is important to make transitions work.   Doing lessons as a group makes the individual presentations many of us do in a typical class seem easy by comparison.  Another thing I learned was the importance of a rubric.  Dr. Shannon brought this to our attention last week in our planning.  Until now, I never gave much thought to the planning and preparation that a teacher must put into developing the guidelines for a rubric and with that the expectations for grading.  It also requires some math skills to make the numbers work.  I realize teachers owe clear expectations and clear grading to the students, but haven't considered how they are part of the planning before a lesson ever takes place.  I think I had better work on my skills for figuring percentages!
Overall, I think our group worked really well together.  I know that I was surprised by the amount of time it takes to put things together, and I owe thanks to both Travis and Nicole for doing extra work when I was stumped by my lack of computer skills.  Thanks guys!  I know I also learned some computer skills by watching and asking questions-just another benefit to working together.   I am looking forward to Wednesday night.

Blog #9 Planning Group Teach

Our group teach planning has been going well, but it is not without its challenges!  The best part is experiencing how new ideas come about as ideas and possibilities are shared in the group.  Last Wednesday night, I think our whole group was a little overwhelmed considering that we are the first group and all feel the crunch of deadlines that are approaching way too fast.   We had met once previously and considered ideas and approaches, but didn't have anything concrete.  After meeting with Dr. Shannon and receiving good advice we stayed and continued talking.  For me, it was a neat experience to see how ideas take shape and how we built on each other's ideas to come up with a plan and lessons.  That is not to say that all anxiety is gone.  I have complete confidence in our group and believe in positive thinking, but must admit that the task of completing components of the lesson and figuring out how to transition between them effectively is daunting.  I'm sure our ideas will change and evolve some more between now and the actual lesson.  Originally, I feared how the dynamics of a group of five might work, but have found that in our case, it is not a detriment, but has worked well because everyone chipped in and shared their ideas.  It is good for us aspiring teachers to work together and see how our combined ideas work together. And hopefully create an even stronger lesson.  I have enjoyed sharing in a collaborative project and think it will be ultimately rewarding.
Finally, I must share that this is an eye-opening experience for the amount of time and planning that must go into a lesson to make it work.    In the past I have heard critics of teachers say how easy teachers have it-uninformed critics I might add- right now, I'm not sure what I would say if I heard someone say that, let's just say I would try to be tactful.  More seriously, one thing I have learned is that preparation is incredibly important, and good preparation combined with different models and methods we explored this semester will hopefully make for good experiences in teaching.