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Today's partnership school experience was quite different from the first week. This is mainly because I was able to actually observe a classroom and get an idea of what it's like being in a secondary school classroom with students.
Katie and I were welcomed into Mary's classroom, one of the drama teachers, to observe her year 9 drama lesson. My first impressions of this drama teacher, on the first day at the high school, were that she was a thoughtful teacher and cared about the interest of all her students. However, today's lesson seemed to show little of that happening. Perhaps the theory is all there and she wishes to involve all the students, yet it just doesn't seem to be happening.
The lesson started off with a group discussion on why it is important for everyone to remember their own scripts. The teacher clearly explained why they were important and even questioned students as to why we may need them in class. By questioning the students and having them realise for themselves why they are needed in class, made her rules and reasoning seem fair rather than harsh and unclear. I believe this discussion was a good way to make sure students will remember their scripts for the next class and to establish clear and fair rules/responsibilities.
Once the teacher introduced Katie and I, I was then asked a question about my fainting episode from the previous week. Although I hadn't realised how much of an impression I already had made, it was a great opportunity for me to explain that it was due to flu and not nerves.
After that was cleared up, the students rehearsed their lines in front of the class. This is the part of the lesson that I felt wasn’t beneficial to all students as not all students were involved at all times. The students with the main roles and the most lines played a huge part, whilst the students with barely any lines or very little had to just sit back and listen to the rest of their classmates the whole time. The audience members seemed to get distracted easily and bored because of the little they were doing in the class, hence it was quite loud.
If it was my class, I believe I would have gotten everyone to involved to begin with, with a warm up game to get everyone energised and focused. I then would break the class off into small groups to go practise their lines to make sure everyone has something to do. I would then go around to each group to give them any guidance needed and to see how they were going. At the end I think I would have a group discussion and reflection or quick show of ideas. This way they all would have been involved in the class and their own learning goals and direction.
And although I thought it was creative that the class is performing something written by the teacher a few years back, I believe they may have been more interested in performing something they created themselves with their own imagination. I just personally remember enjoying the process of coming up with a script and the felt more proud and willing to perform something me and my friends put together rather than something my teacher gave us. This way we could have more of an input into what we all wished to say and do in the play.
Yet, that is just another way to run a class. Whether it is more beneficial or not to the students at this stage, it’s hard to tell. I just am wondering whether when it comes to my teaching rounds, if I can run things my way or if I have to keep to how the teacher runs her class.
Katie and I were welcomed into Mary's classroom, one of the drama teachers, to observe her year 9 drama lesson. My first impressions of this drama teacher, on the first day at the high school, were that she was a thoughtful teacher and cared about the interest of all her students. However, today's lesson seemed to show little of that happening. Perhaps the theory is all there and she wishes to involve all the students, yet it just doesn't seem to be happening.
The lesson started off with a group discussion on why it is important for everyone to remember their own scripts. The teacher clearly explained why they were important and even questioned students as to why we may need them in class. By questioning the students and having them realise for themselves why they are needed in class, made her rules and reasoning seem fair rather than harsh and unclear. I believe this discussion was a good way to make sure students will remember their scripts for the next class and to establish clear and fair rules/responsibilities.
Once the teacher introduced Katie and I, I was then asked a question about my fainting episode from the previous week. Although I hadn't realised how much of an impression I already had made, it was a great opportunity for me to explain that it was due to flu and not nerves.
After that was cleared up, the students rehearsed their lines in front of the class. This is the part of the lesson that I felt wasn’t beneficial to all students as not all students were involved at all times. The students with the main roles and the most lines played a huge part, whilst the students with barely any lines or very little had to just sit back and listen to the rest of their classmates the whole time. The audience members seemed to get distracted easily and bored because of the little they were doing in the class, hence it was quite loud.
If it was my class, I believe I would have gotten everyone to involved to begin with, with a warm up game to get everyone energised and focused. I then would break the class off into small groups to go practise their lines to make sure everyone has something to do. I would then go around to each group to give them any guidance needed and to see how they were going. At the end I think I would have a group discussion and reflection or quick show of ideas. This way they all would have been involved in the class and their own learning goals and direction.
And although I thought it was creative that the class is performing something written by the teacher a few years back, I believe they may have been more interested in performing something they created themselves with their own imagination. I just personally remember enjoying the process of coming up with a script and the felt more proud and willing to perform something me and my friends put together rather than something my teacher gave us. This way we could have more of an input into what we all wished to say and do in the play.
Yet, that is just another way to run a class. Whether it is more beneficial or not to the students at this stage, it’s hard to tell. I just am wondering whether when it comes to my teaching rounds, if I can run things my way or if I have to keep to how the teacher runs her class.
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