Middle school kids can be a different kind of difficult. Everyone is at different places with figuring out what kind of person they are or want to be. This can be a challenge in classrooms too, a you have all types of little friend groups, and they’re all different forms of demanding. While you have some groups that are almost always well behaved, you also have your group of kids that enjoys talking back in hopes for a laugh from their classmates. When trying to either give a lecture or get the class settled down, you’ll have to watch out for those who try take advantage of the situation, and try to yell over everyone else. As a teacher, it’s important to know how to take control of the situation, and not let these vocal group of kids get distracted too much. Through my internship I’ve learned that students will sometimes try to test their limits or think that they can get way with more than others, especially at this age.
Passing the halfway mark of my internship, I've learned a lot about what it takes to be a teacher behind just a public lecture.
One thing that was mentioned to me was that at the beginning, a new teacher might tend to stick heavily to the curriculum they are told to teach. But over time, a teacher might later learn to fit their lessons to their kids, and not the other way around. With the teacher's own experience, they'll learn about what not only works best for them, but for the students. It is really important for a student to be able to connect to a lesson for them to be able to understand and learn it. This is why it's good to know that each student learns differently, responds differently, and understands differently. After a teacher is aware of this, they are then able to fit their lesson adequately for everyone to process the information. With the general interest that I have in possibly wanting to peruse a teaching career in the future, I've been given different pieces of knowledge to keep in mind if I choose to push forward.
A suggestion that I got was that staying organized isn't just something for the students to stick to, but it is crucial part about this field of work. But while it might be tempting to follow the suggestions taught or encouraged, such as always having your class plans two weeks ready in advance, you quickly learn that that isn't the best. Things change often, and they change quickly, so while keeping the long term plans in mind, it's safe to mainly plan one week in advance as things go. As a teacher, it's good to be prepared to not always stick to a schedule, but to keep in mind that there will be things that happen. |