I taught my science lesson today to a first grade class. Throughout my lesson I was thinking to myself about what to do and what not to do as far as the SATIC coding goes. I thought it would be easy, but it was not. I felt during class we all would be laughing or joking about some of the "silly" things that we should never do that those teachers in the videos were doing. After my lesson today I definitely caught myself doing them! When I was watching the videos in class I knew what was "not appropriate" and what we were aiming for, but when I got into the situation myself I either got caught off guard which took me back to old habits or I just didn't notice what I was doing.
I felt like I had to give a fair amount of directions, which I think you need to do in the younger grades. I felt I did well with asking thought provoking questions and using students comments or ideas to springboard into other questions. Although I was asking many questions, I sometimes got tripped up with how to ask a question either without giving the answer away or wording it properly for the students to understand.
I watched about half of my video after I did my lesson and some things that I noticed that I struggled with was: I did ask a rhetorical question....oops. I have a problem with confirming students answers when I know they are right even though I tried to remember to just say okay thank you or count with my fingers. I also found myself have of the time asking the student to clarify, but sometimes I would do it for them because it took them like ten minutes to articulate what they wanted to say!
This blog is getting rather lengthy and I'm sorry about that, but another thing I run into in other lessons as well as this one is I asked a lot of questions today in my lesson. In first grade, students tend to keep their hand raised the whole day and after you call on them to answer your question they either stray away and comment on something totally off or give a completely wrong answer. I just don't know how to deal with that yet. Today I was still on the concept of balance, but I felt like I was all over the place with my questions because of the random stuff the students were saying.
Strategies that I could use to improve would be to practice, practice, and more practice. There is no way I can get better unless I continue to break bad habits by practicing the new ones. Just like in sports you practice to become the best player and in teaching I need to practice to become the best teacher. I also find it extremely helpful to videotape lessons. I am seriously contemplating buying a flip video camera. I can learn from what I have done and it is kind of hard to forget how bad you were when you have it on video!
I am looking forward to reflecting on my video because I think i will go through many of the same things Shanon described. I have already noticed myself going back to old habits while I teach. The SATIC code is much more difficult than I originally expected. I think watching other teachers and reflecting on my own teaching will really help my teaching.
ReplyDeleteI have not taught my lesson yet, but will next week. When first talking about the SATIC code during class I thought it would be pretty easy to use. Then, watching the videos in class I realized it will be a lot more difficult than I thought. I agree with Shannon, I will probably catch myself doing things that I thought would be easy to avoid!
ReplyDeletePractice Practice Practice! I think that is what is going to help all of us. Reflecting on our videos is going to be such a great help. I agree with Katelyn as well..SATIC code is much more difficult than I thought it was going to be. Shanon makes a good point when she talks about how students in the younger grades tend to ask question or make comments on topics that aren't really related to the lesson...how do we address those?
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is refreshing....and a little bit nerve-wrecking! It's nice to know that these are things that we all need to be working on. As great as these things are, they are not easy to do! That is where the scary part comes in. I am teaching my lesson tomorrow and I'm worried that I will get caught up in some of my old habits/things I have seen other practicum teachers doing. I know that this will be a worthwhile process because, through the SATIC coding, we will get a chance to see what we are doing well and what we need to be working on to improve our educating and delivery as teachers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Shannon! I taught my lesson today to 4th graders, and I felt like I had to give a lot of direction in order for them to understand what my expectations were. I think that it is very difficult once you go out and try to teach knowing what the SATIC code is that should be followed, and it puts a lot of pressure on teaching, but with practice and more practice it should become easier.
ReplyDeleteSince we have discussed SATIC in class I have taught a couple JA lessons as well as reading lessons. I also have caught myself many times reassuring students that their answers were correct or if they were wrong saying that might not be quite right but was a good thought. Also, while observing other teachers teacher I have seen the same thing happening often. It is really hard for me not to do that because I feel like it makes the students want to talk more in class and I don't know how else respond to their thoughts. I think that is a big struggle, especially in elementary school because that's how most teachers I have ever observed taught and that's how I have always talk to kids.
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