3 lessons learned

I learned alot this semester at East Fairmont. The first thing that I think I learned was just how strict of a teacher I am going to be. My whole family is teachers. My mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin, my great aunt, uncle, and so on. Needless to say, I spent a great deal of my childhood in classrooms, watching what my family did, seeing what worked and did not work, and one thing I have noticed over my last 20 years is that most of my family are pretty strict teachers, they do not permit students to clown around. My aunt made a comment one time that comes to mind; "Someone is going to run the classroom, it is either going to be you or them." My family is one that falls in the first category, and I always felt that I would be much more laid back and easy going then the rest of my family. However, on my first day at East I spent most of the time wanting to yell at kids for talking, or not paying attention or using their cell phones and lots of other things, and it was at this point that I realized just how strict I was going to be. Another thing I learned is how easy it is to just stand up in front of the class and lecture, however it is much harder to engage the class and to get the students involved in the lesson. Finally, I learned that it is not as scary to be in front of a classroom as I thought it would be. Before I started my observations and getting involved with the class I was nervous as to how I would handle myself, if I would be able to maintain a level of professionalness, and how well I would be able to manage the classroom. I am not sure how well I would manage a classroom by myself yet, I think that I could get by, however I do not feel that I would be able to accomplish what I feel that I need to in order to be a "good teacher" by my standards. I have not met my own goals yet, but I am closer now then I was a semester ago, and hopefully, I will be closer next semester.

Action Research Wonderings

Instructional Technology Integration