First 2 Lessons

I taught my first 2 full blown lessons today! I think they went really well. The first one I taught to year 5 over sequencing, and counting by a certain increment, and to year 6 I taught adding to make 1, 10, and 100. I do believe it is a little easier here than in the states, because the students at this school know they are here because their parents pay for them to be here, so they are better behaved. One thing I observed my mentor in the senior school do, is she doesn't have students raise their hand, she just calls on students. This way the students are more attentive because they know they could be called on at any moment. Luckily for me the 2 teachers whose classes I taught in have effective classroom management strategies in play. I did however make one student cry today!! I know, what an awful, mean teacher Miss Rothrock is! Some of the year 5 girls were fighting over these blocks that they wanted to keep on their desk, and I just didn't want to deal with it so I told all of them to just put them back in the bin, and we weren't using them at all therefore there was no need to have them. Two of the girls were arguing about putting them back in the bin, and so I told the girl who had them on her desk to put it away. I watched her walk to the back and put them away, so I turned around to begin my lesson. The next thing I know, she is bawling!! Ms. Platt had to take her out in the hallway to ask her what was wrong, but was sent back to her seat straight away. Oh boy! What a way to start the day!

Other than that, I think everything went pretty well, I think smoothness of delivery comes with practice, so that is something to work on. I was marking their work this afternoon and most of them did really well; of course there are always a few that just rush through their work and make careless mistakes.

I am teaching a science lesson tomorrow and continuing the lesson in one of the maths classes, so I have to go to school a little early to set up the experiment. Should be a fun day!