Day 4 - Some Fun and a Valuable Lesson

My little profile activity went well! The students enjoyed it and I laughed really hard reading all of their answers. I think I will be able to connect really well with them over the next few weeks since we have so much in common! I'm going to try to bring as many elements I have found out about them into my lessons as possible.

I did learn a valuable lesson through this activity, though, and that is to always give students a time frame to work with. With the first class, I forgot to say how much time they were going to have to complete the activity. While they were on task and I was circulating, it took them quite a while. My mentor teacher pointed this mistake out to me so I was able to correct it for the afternoon class. They finished the activity in the 15 minutes I gave them and produced about the same quality of work (if not better). It was definitely a good learning experience for me.

Today I also learned that I have a weakness: I don't have enough confidence in my French speaking abilities! S took me aside after class and told me that I have to stop worrying, because I speak very well. I did make one grammatical error on the activity sheet, but it was minor and the students certainly didn't notice. S said that he was impressed overall and he was really happy that I was able to start working with them. Now I'm really itching to start teaching them full-time next week!

S and I sat down over prep period today and went over my few completed lesson plans and my rather detailed schedule for the next 5 weeks. I wanted his input about when to have the unit test and when to introduce the group project. He was so helpful in warning me that this group of students is easily overwhelmed by due dates, so I have to really pace things out for them. They are getting half a class of explanation of the project with time to get into groups and sign up for topics. Then, they are getting one full class in the computer lab and one full class in the library. They will also get two classes for presentations/submissions, which will happen a full week before the unit test. This all meant that I had to do some major rearranging of my schedule and lesson plans, which did set me back most of a day's work, but I am so thankful for S's help. This is shaping up to be a really great practicum!