One Month In

I was able to be "Ms. Roberts" for 3 days last week! What an experience! I was able to try out and practice my classroom management skills, practice making the flow of the class smooth, dealing with discipline issues, and following through on discipline, etc.

Ms. Hodgson gave me some good pointers after her evaluation of my teaching practice over gases. Like I mentioned in my earlier blog, I know my weakness is leading class discussions; Ms. Hodgson suggested tone inflection, walking around the classroom instead of being stationary, and make a clear and definitive end to each activity or topic.

She complimented me on my student's use of vocabulary and scientific terminology, saying that I must have been doing a good job with them thus far because they have a deeper understanding. She commented I had good activities and demonstrations as well. She said I seemed a little nervous, which was very true because it was the first time I had a stranger (not in the classroom on a normal basis) in the room doing a formal assessment of my teaching. I think it went well, and Rachael complimented and thanked Jen and I for all we do and how we do it.

I will start teaching 2 more lessons a week, year 7 maths. I am excited about this because the girls are enthusiastic and they seem to respond well to me already, since I am in their maths lesson and chemistry lesson.

On a totally different note, it snowed again last night, but we have decided to continue our tradition of walking around Denbigh. This time though, we will have a guest, Rosie, the yellow labrador. She belongs Ms. White, who is in charge of boarding. Should be a nice day.