I am so excited to have the opportunity to teach the adorable second graders about science! Even more exciting is the fact that we are teaching them about butterflies; a very interesting and intriguing topic for young children! (And often adults for that matter.) I am excited to learn about the metamorphoses of caterpillars to butterflies and to experience this remarkable event with young eager learners/scientists.
I am also very excited to be co-teaching the lesson with the wonderful Mia. I think that the co-teaching will provide us (or at least me) with an even more exhilarating and meaningful experience. I am excited that we are going to be creating our own lessons for an entire unit of content and for the first time are going to be acting out each lesson in a "real" classroom. Working in a real classroom will allow us to gain realistic feedback from both the teacher and the students which is something we have not experienced thus far in the program. I am anxious and nervous, at the same time, to see what the pros and cons will be of each lesson. I am also thrilled to be working with such an experienced teacher who can help guide us if necessary (hopefully it will not be) and can help us improve our teaching strategies, ultimately allowing us to become better teachers in the future.
Although I am super excited to be teaching the second-graders about caterpillars and butterflies I am utterly petrified that I will fail the students by providing them with a poor learning experience. I am scared that the lesson plans that we create will not be effective and that the students will not gain a full understanding of the life cycle of the butterfly; thus missing out on one of the most exciting activities they will be thought in elementary science. I am also scared of deterring the students away from the field science by loosing their attention and by making science boring for them. Hopefully, we will be able to keep the students interested and involved throughout the entire unit. Lastly, I am very concerned about classroom management. I feel that this may be one of my weakest areas, if nothing else than from lack of experience, but I am hoping that the co-teaching approach that we are going to be using will allow us to manage the classroom smoothly and provide an exciting learning experience for all of the students.Although this is experience is very new and somewhat intimidating, I feel that it is going to be an amazing experience and I can't wait to start!
Yes, this is definitely an exciting and anxious experience! I am very thankful to be able to co-teach with you. That in itself will be a great learning experience for me! I also look forward to the feedback we'll receive- it can only make us more effective! Yes, classroom management is so important- I've seen some effective techniques/cues used by teachers during our observations which we can talk about... You also made a good point when you shared that you don't want to provide a poor learning experience for the students. Thankfully, I think that teaching this specific unit and using real caterpillars will be exciting for the students. I'm sure we'll come up with some creative projects and visuals to include too! Maybe even some fun kinesthetic activities... Hmmm, let's let our creativity get the better of us!
ReplyDeleteHa! I love that picture! I think you and Mia are going to make a great team and are going to teach a great butterfly unit.
ReplyDeleteKatie, I agree with what you said about how scary it is knowing that we could potentially be responsible for not giving these children the boost in science morale that they need and deserve. By making the material boring to them and turning them off to science, or simply by missing something that could have a tremendous effect on how the children understood the lesson we taught them, could essentially effect the way that they look at science for the rest of their lives. I, too, am excited about having the opportunity to co-teach with another classmate because it will allow both of us to learn from each others mistakes (which I am hopeful will only be minor mistakes and constructive tips), and to be able to see first hand what approaches work and which ones need refining. I am confident that because we are doing it this way, we will be able to carry the knowledge that we gain by working together over to our own classrooms next fall!
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteI think you and Mia will do a great job. You should not worry about them not being interested in the life cycle of the butterfly; I think that all young people are interested in learning about organisms, especially the butterfly. Just like the butterfly undergoes a metamorphosis, I feel that you and Mia will go through a similar process while proceeding through your 7 lessons.
Katie,
ReplyDeletePerfect photo. It's 100% ok to be scared...that means that you care. Please feel free to ask for feedback before any lesson (even though we won't see the plans until we get there). Just keep planning and reflecting...you'll get there. :)