05.17.07
WEEK 9 - TEACHING ROUNDS week #1
So this is my first week of my first lot of teaching rounds for Secondary School. I hate to say it, but everything I feared about my rounds are correct and are still of great concern to me. The school does not have an overly high standard of academic results and has, what I would say, a problem with behaviour. The students seem very unmotivated, which is proving to be a very big struggle within the drama class. I haven’t yet taught a whole lesson and I’m somewhat fearing the day I do. I’ve got some great ideas up my sleave however I’m just not sure how the students will respond to it. From what I’ve seen, their response so far has not been overly inviting. They are not very good at improvisations, therefore for them to come up with a 2 min piece on something will, in most cases, take them a whole class. To overcome this, my aim is to do a lot of instant work with them as a whole class (ie, groups warm up games, hot seating, teacher in role etc.) and to avoid the students retreating to their small groups where they just sit around and chat, and not actually prepare anything.
I guess, that when I look back at some of the fantastic activities we’ve done in class 98% of the time they’ve ran really smoothly. This is probably due to a number of factors. One, is that we have great teacher, who always seems to be prepared, two is that us (the students) are very accepting of each task and embrace each activity fully, and three, is that we have chosen to be there, and therefore are aiming to learn something from the lesson. When you transport these activities into a Secondary school classroom, factors two and three are often not valid. This is where I, as the teacher, need to find different ways of motivating and grabbing the students attention so they find some validity in what they are learning. I have to tap into their interest and lives, and connect as much of my lesson to their way of living and learning. Somewhat simple in theory, however challenging in practice.
I’m never one to shy away from a challenge………. I’ll be trying my hardest in the next couple of weeks to successfully run a drama class that students are engaged in for 99% of the time. I’ll let you know how I go!!!