Teaching Mr. Lochen

It's finally happened. Teaching is becoming easier and easier. My first teaching experience of my entire life occurred last week. I taught a two day lesson on the anatomy and physiology of the human body. To focus my lesson, I concentrated on the levels of organization and function of an organism and the major organ systems. The lesson went very well. I presented the material in a power point format, which, I must admit, I did have reservations about. Several people have told me that a power point presentation is too formal, almost collegiate. It's not a form of teaching generally used on 7th and 8th grade students. Despite this advice from more experienced teachers, I decided that I was going to go ahead with it anyway. I knew I wanted to show pictures of the organ systems and I wouldn't be able to show detailed images of the body on an overhead. In addition, I had to present a wealth of information, a task not well suited for a dry erase board. In order to keep the kids awake throughout the entire presentation, I created a study guide with which they could follow along. This proved to be a very effective method to keep their attention.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes, I instructed my students to make a poster of a randomly assigned organ system. The posters, in general, turned out quite well. I enjoy this method of teaching because it forces the students to go over their notes or refer to their textbooks to gain insight into each organ system. It also addresses the talents of a few artists in the class, and gave them the opportunity to show off their work. Overall, I think the student's were very proud of their results.

I barely finished the lesson on the second day and for the first time in my teaching career (mind you, I was only 48 hours into my career) I was concerned about the time. I began teaching thinking there was no way I was going to be able to fill the entire two hour period and emerged from the experience fearing that I hadn't taught them enough due to time constraints.

Today was my third teaching experience. I taught the students about the planets, comets, asteroids, meteors and meteorites. It was a great lesson. Do you know the difference between a meteor and a meteorite? I used a power point presentation again which the students appreciated. One of my strengths is my ability to control the classroom. I pride myself upon being able to quiet a roudy class and keep their attention. (More on my classroom management techniques in another blog.) Today, however, a student decided to test me. Before each class, I instruct the students to raise their hands before they speak, and I am very consistent throughout the class. Today, a student tried to question this authority and continued talking despite my stern warnings. Without going into too many details, I separated him from the group and discussed the issue with him after class. I think it was the first time that one of the student teachers showed that we mean business. Now the last thing I want is to be a dictator in the classroom, but I really feel that students learn best with rules and structure. Anyway...

So all in all, teaching is going well. I'm learning a lot of new techniques and gaining confidence. I'm concerned about how different it will be teaching high schoolers but I'm up for the challenge. Even though some students choose not to respect my rules, I love teaching. Though I fret about it before hand, all my worries disolve as I get up in front of the class. I feel comfortable in my role as teacher and facilitator. I would like to try different technique besides powerpoint and on Friday I'll have the chance to do just that as I teach students about the difference between kinetic and potential energy. I'm totally stoked.

God Bless!