Chapter XXX: Improvement!

(Sroll down to the video if you so choose)

Happy day. My lesson was a success.  I've met more than 85% of my criteria during evaluations.  The person who evaluated me is also a teacher who came from Western Washington University.  She's a substititute teacher but she knows her stuff as well as much as my host teacher.  My host teacher was busy evaluating students in preparation for conferences, hence, the substitute teacher.

I did not fumble through this lesson.  Classroom management was much -- waaaay better than the last one.  Alhough you may see children's heads moving around, they were still very attentive and answered questions because in the beginning I talked about keeping their eyes and ears on me while I'm talking.  You can hear children going in and out of the bathroom.  This is typical during a transition.  Transition times are always the hardest for any teacher.  In layman's terms: chaos usually happens when switching from one activity to another.  In my case, the classroom teacher and I switched places; that in itself, is a (minor) transition, but resulted in some chaos.  It wasn't as chaotic as it was before -- it doesn't look as bad as it sounds/looks -- but the teacher and I managed to keep the class under control after too many children decided to excuse themselves to go to the restroom.

There were two things that I did not include during this lesson, which was part of the criteria: praising positive behavior and checking for understanding.  This lesson occurred during the morning part of kindergarten (i.e. AM Kindergarten). After my first evaluation by the teacher, I read it and took note of those missing items.  So, the second time around was much better -- way better as I became aware of what I needed to do.  The substitute teacher evaluated both sessions and told me that there was a significant difference between the two.  I met 98% of the presenation's criteria the second time.  I wish I could have recorded that session, but I was low on batteries by the time I wanted to record my second presentation.  I utilized the same presentation in both sessions

What I love about both sessions is the way I handled behavioral management.  Because I was able to control both classes through wait-time, "do as I do" games, and choral responses, the children were attentive and engaged. I was tickled pink at the end of the day.  It was a successful teaching experience.  I can't wait until this Thursday when my practicum supervisor comes in to observe me. :)