I have learned a great deal from
my cooperating teachers during the past two and one-half years. This semester, in particular, I have learned
a great deal from my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Falcicchio. One of the most important things I have
learned from her is that, as a teacher, you have to be prepared for anything to happen
in the classroom.. While you may have one thing planned you have to make sure
you have backup lessons or ways to improvise if something goes wrong. Even though you cannot always be
prepared for everything that can occur, you must be able to think quickly on
your feet. If you cannot think quickly
and change direction quickly, it is possible that your students will get out of hand.
One experience in particular occurred
during the recent hurricane. Hurricane
Sandy had put the school in which I observe out of commission for a full week.
When the students came back after that week Mrs. Falcicchio made sure to
address the storm and to then ask the students how they were affected by the storm. She realized that some of the students were
greatly affected by this natural disaster.. Aside from the devastation of the storm
itself, the school continued to lose electrical and Internet power for many
days after the storm. Mrs. Falcicchio
was always prepared with extra work material for when the Smartboard stopped
working and when the lights went out. She was prepared with flashlights and
candles. It was obvious that as soon as something would go wrong in the
classroom, the students would panic and get a little out of hand but as soon as
they saw how Mrs. Falcicchio just kept moving on and paid little attention to
all of the inconveniences that they had to endure, then the students adapted
and adopted her “get busy and do my work” attitude. I realize that situations like this don’t
occur every day, but I have learned something from Mrs. Falcicchio………………………as
future teachers we have to make sure that we are prepared for any situation
because we have to be responsible not only for ourselves but for our students
as well.
Have any of you experienced
situations in which your teachers showed that they were well prepared and able
to take full control? Have you seen the
opposite…………a situation where the teacher was not prepared, not flexible and lost
control of her/his class? How important do you think it is for a teacher to
always be flexible and be prepared?
I agree 100%. The fact that anything can happen at any given time puts us as the teachers in full responsibility to be able to act and think fast. If we are not prepared as teachers to take charge when these events occur, like Burcu said, we can lose our students in seconds(mentally and physically). Back-up plans are essential.
ReplyDeleteMy cooperating teacher also has a lot of technical difficulty with her smart board on the regular. Mrs. Wallis always has some kind of alternate route she will take if things go wrong in the classroom. She will teach a new lesson, have worksheets printed out for the students (even to keep busy if a minute is needed for her to gather her thoughts ) or group work.
As future teachers we will learn from our observations that we must always be ready to improvise and take action if things do not go as planned. I have never experienced an unprepared teacher in a circumstance such as this, and have been at the same school for my past years of fieldwork. This says a great deal for Radcliffe School in Nutley, NJ.
I believe teachers must always be prepared and have backup plans especially for the younger children. Right now I am in a pre-k classroom and one day their had been a fire drill. Once they got back into the room the "Group time" had been cut short. Rather than have a backup or a quick solution to the problem she told the students to forget about the lesson for the day and start to play instead. Well the children loved this but since play time was a half hour longer than usual, it was so much harder to get them focused when it was time for them to work again. Children need to stick to a schedule and when something interrupts the schedule it should be the teachers responsibility to have a solution to keep things as "normal" as possible.
ReplyDeleteI have experience both unprepared teachers and prepared teachers when using a computer/powerpoint/smartboard in the classroom. There are many instances when technology doesn't seem to work for whatever reason. This is when the prepared teachers are seperated from the unprepared teachers. Prepared teachers always come with a back up lesson plan just incase the techonolgy doesn't seem to cooperate. While in this instance unprepared teachers struggle with what to do with their students in this situation. Being unprepared not only makes you look unproffessional and wastes valuable class time, it also negatively affects your students.
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ReplyDeleteIt is very important as teachers to always expect the unexpected. Changes should be happening every day and it is very important for the teacher to demonstrate a good attitude. The students look up to him or her and will go off of how the teacher responds. Even if a lesson is not going well, the teacher should realize this. When I was observing, the teacher began this lesson with the students and about half way through, she realized that the students were very bored and understood the concept. She was very prepared for this and stopped the lesson and had the students play a game about the same concept as the lesson. This way, the students were much more interested as well as challenged. The teacher modified her plans to best help the students.
ReplyDeleteIt is very important that teachers always come to class prepared. Unexpected things can occur in the classroom and you have to be prepared in some way. Relying on your natural instincts is evident and always the wisest choice.
ReplyDeleteMy cooperating teacher was in charge of the Thanksgiving play so she had an extra responsibility along with catching her students up on thr work/lessons they have missed. She found a way to have them complete her work and rehearse the play in time for it.
I found it admirable and was a wake up call for me. It made me realize that no matter how many lesson plans you made, not everything goes according to plan. As a teacher you have to have a back up plan(s) for what ever obstacles get in the way of the classroom.