The start of our second week was a bit rough. After our long
weekend in Sydney, everyone in the group wanted to call into work.
Unfortunately, there’s really no such thing as that for teachers, especially if
you were like me and you were teaching a lesson that day. Luckily it is an even
week and on even weeks I only have two classes and one Link on Monday, both in
the afternoon. Link is the literacy program at the school that every single
student attends at the same time for 30 minutes every day. See, because the
teacher I am with is an executive teacher as well as a year leader, she has a
smaller class load than other teachers so that she can fulfill her other
duties. This is also great for me because I can see another side of teaching
where you’re not actually in the classroom but instead you’re working with and
helping students and fellow teachers in another way. Even though we were
technically “off” all morning, there was still plenty to do. This gave me a
chance to work on my journals and portfolio as well as prepare for my first
official lesson. I also got to see a high level Link class where students receive
time for free reading, which I believe is incredibly important at every age.
Finally, the time came. The period started at 1:20 and Mel
had them for the first half then handed it over to me at 10 ‘til. I did my best
to pretend I wasn’t nervous. The lesson was on irony and the three types of it:
verbal, situational, and dramatic. This was our year 10 English class and they
are all low literacy and high behavior so I knew I needed to make it both clear
and fun. We started with a few slides and some guided notes. Even during
instruction my style isn’t pure lecture, it’s more of a call and respond where
I would give the first bit of information then ask students to help me build
the rest. This gives them a chance to make connections and ask questions as
well. Once we knew the content, I introduced an activity where I would present
pictures or situations to them and they would decide which type of irony it
was, then respond accordingly, such as either sitting down, standing up, or
raising their hands. Our last step of the lesson was assessment. I made a
mini-quiz where the students partnered up and the team with the best score
would get a prize.
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After we had finished I realized that the lesson had
actually gone pretty well. I was nervous because this class can be quite
rambunctious and being a new teacher to them, who knows what they were going to
do? But luckily they were the best I had seen them thus far. They also seemed
to enjoy what we were doing. Looking back on it, there are a few changes I
would’ve liked to make. For one, although they enjoyed the movement in the
second activity, it seemed almost too much for them and it was a little
difficult to pull them back in. If I were to do something similar, I might
stand create hand gestures for them to respond with so that there would still
be movement but they would remain seated. Also, I would work on establishing a
cue for when they needed to be quiet. They are a talkative bunch and a couple
times I found myself yelling over them. Instead I’m thinking that a raised hand
may work better. Overall though I loved being in front of the classroom and had
a lot of fun navigating a new set of students.
After that, the rest of the day was a breeze. I participated
in a staff meeting where we talking about Google apps for education and how we
can get the most out of them. With Google, we are able to share files, work collaboratively
on any assignments, and give students fast and accurate feedback. They even
have self-grading quizzes! Once I got home I hit up the pool and spent the
majority of the rest of the night relaxing. Although, being the second week, it
finally came time to do laundry. And guess how much it is? $4!! I honestly don’t
know if that’s a lot at home or not but it seems like a lot here. And that was
just for the washer! It was an extra $4 to dry. Opting out of that, I hung my
clothes out in the “drying area” where lines are available. This was working
wonderfully until about 2 am that morning when it started down pouring. Needless
to say the clothes are now lying out to dry all over our villa.
