Teaching Lab #1: First Days!

This week in lab, we were challenged to create a lesson plan for, and present a first day lesson to our peers. Although we were to create an entire lesson plan, we were only asked to present a 10 minute section of our lesson. As I look ahead to my student teaching experience in Boonsboro, Maryland- I found this lab extremely helpful. Due to the nature of the Washington County Public Schools not beginning classes until after labor day, I truly will have a first day with my students. The first three weeks that I am at Boonsboro will be spent 1 week observing and 2 weeks finishing up a floral unit. However, shortly after those three weeks, I begin student teaching with a brand new set of students in both my Agricultural Science class and my Power Mechanics 1 class.

For this lesson, I chose to begin with my first day in Agricultural Science class.

When preparing for this lesson, we were not only asked to provide a lesson plan for the entire time that we would be teaching, which for me is 56 minutes; but we were also asked to formulate three classroom management posters entitled: Classroom Procedures, Expectations, and Consequences.

As these are just a first draft of my posters, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! In the future I would like to make the posters more creative and engaging instead of merely words on a poster.

Classroom Procedures: 

• Obtain personal folder
• Complete bellwork 
• Turn in any homework assignments/late assignments via Turn-It-In Bin
• Complete ticket out (when asked)

Classroom Expectations:

• Be respectful 
• Use appropriate language
• Wait for Ms. Stauffer to dismiss you (not the bell)

Classroom Consequences:

• 1st Offense- Warning
• 2nd Offense- Detention with Ms. Stauffer
• 3rd Offense- Call Home/Parent-Teacher Conference
• 4th Offense- Office Referral

-Ms. Stauffer reserves the right to skip any of the above consequences and go directly to 4th offense.

Clarification: 

-The personal folders will be file folders with a tab that has each student's name on so that students can keep their bellwork books and name tags in one place. These folders will be kept in the classroom and available for students to grab on their way in every day. 

-The turn-it-in bin is a personal favorite of mine. I feel as though by having a bin for students to hand in work that they have missed or simply turning in homework; this eliminates wasted class time. However, I would still address if there were any questions regarding the homework. 

-The ticket out would be a check that I would do once a week for students to assess their learning and make sure that everyone is on the same page without asking students to speak in front of peers if they are embarrassed of not knowing or understanding a concept.

Reflecting on the first day of Agricultural Science class

Gems:                                                                                              Opps:

-The Snow Ball fight allowed the "rowdy"                              -I was struggling to find words

class to get up and moving. None of the                                    to use other than "we're going to 

students were out of hand when throwing                                 move on now, ok" when trying to gain

their snowballs.                                                                          students attention and get them back 

                                                                                                   on track.

-I was very pleased with having my

objectives written on the board                                                -I also caught myself merely telling

as well as verbally addressing them                                         students my classroom procedures,

working to incorporate all modalities!                                     expectations, and consequences when 

                                                                                                  I wanted to make it a class discussion.

-I was also pleased with having 

address all three modalities:                                                    -A peer also suggested that my bell 

kinesthetic, visual, and auditory.                                              work and ice breaker activities were

                                                                                                  similar and she had trouble determining

-I utilized the word "we" when giving                                     the difference between the two.       

directions; putting myself on the same 

level as my students.                                                                 -Although I did have the class title 

                                                                                                   on the board with the seating chart, 

-I (although unintentional),                                                        I also could have reiterated the class

left the door open slightly longer                                               while students were entering the room.

than usual to allow students who                                             

may have gotten stuck at their lockers

time to get to class. 

-I also mentioned that I 

would like to attend a basketball

game as one of my students

had mentioned that he was on the team; 

showing interest in my students 

outside of the classroom.

Overall, I was very happy with the flow of my lesson, I think that I was able to handle the class other than the phrasing when trying to gain students attention. There is always room for improvement, and I think that I have done a lot of reflecting with this first lab and will take everything that I've learned and try to improve with every teaching lab!