Week five, observation two

Week five began with a 9:00 a.m. observation of my language arts lesson by my State School Sponsor. I taught a lesson on cause and effect, which began with reading a book about a tiger who lost his roar, and ended with the kids making their own folded single-sheet "books." They wrote "I lost my..." on the left side of the fold and an effect sentence beginning with "So..." on the right side. I also had stickers of the words "cause" and "effect" for them to label the sides.

The lesson went great; I had written it up and read over it a couple of times, so I was fairly ready. My Sponsor absolutely loved it; she was full of praise for my delivery, pacing, redirection, and poise. And frankly, I was impressed myself with how well I did. I handled all the little digressions and distractions admirably, in a quiet and friendly but firm tone. My Sponsor said I was very good about letting the students know what my expectations were. It was, dare I say it, fun.

In giving me the run-down of her evaluation, she said she hoped I would always work with the younger children, because I obviously had a gift for it, especially for a man.

So, definitely an ego-stroking morning.

I also taught a good chunk of math: calendar, sequencing, and greater and lesser than.

Here's a good idea I had about behavior. Ms. L has a chart on the wall with green, yellow, orange and red sections. The children start the day with clothespins on green, and for major infractions, they have to move down a color. If they end up on red (which has not happened so far), they get a note home. If they land on orange (which happens a lot for a few of them), they miss ten minutes of recess, unless it happens after recess, in which case nothing happens to them. (Yeah, not very effective.)

My idea is to combine this chart with color-coordinated stickers. My students would get a green, yellow, orange or red sticker in their calendar at the end of the day. They would take the calendars home every day along with their completed work. Every two weeks or so, there would be a class treat, and students who had, say, eight yellow or five orange stickers in ten days would not get the treat. This would provide long-term incentive, a concrete connection between behavior and recompense, and would allow parents to tell at a glance how their child was doing in terms of behavior. So that's my idea for when or if I ever have a classroom.

I made the appointment for my final meeting with the Head at Prestigious. By 9:00 a.m. Thursday, I will know what his "concerns" were and whether I have a job there.

Freaking out again!