Week 2 Reflection

This week was a strange one because of how it was only four days long
and my TA was absent for both Tuesday and Thursday, while I was
going to begin the students new unit science unit on senses that was I
was going to be teaching the entirety of, as well as teaching a new part
of social unit that focused on community; all of the while still assisting
with math and other subjects.
Monday seemed to start out quite well in the morning and in the
afternoon the other student teachers and myself met with the admin
staff to discuss school policies and address any questions we had since
the principal was absent the first week we were there. Unfortunately
the meeting ran long and afterwards when I went back to class I was
asked to teach as I walked in the door. It caught me completely off
guard and the booklets that were supposed to be ready were not, and I
had not been shown how to make copies or the printing facilities within
the school. So I was forced to improvise on the spot with absolutely
nothing I had prepared beforehand available, inevitably it did not go as
well as I would have hoped.
Tuesday my TA was absent, but all of my resources had arrived and I
was prepared to teach thankfully because the sub plan was effectively,
the student teacher will teach and if they need help they will request it.
The day went well though, and seemed to be overall quite effective in
both classroom management and in teaching the students the
information required, as well as going back and properly teaching the
material that did not go well on Monday.
Wednesday went well as I continued to teach the students their social
and science lessons, with my TA back I was able to go over some of the
work I had done on Tuesday and ask if the sub plan for me to teach
everything was going to be an on-going thing, which it will be. In
science the students were blindfolded in order to learn about the world
as an individual who is blind experiences things. This seemed to be a
big risk due to the number of behavioural concerns with students in my
class, but they all enjoyed the experience and learned a great deal
through the lesson. The students that are generally problematic were
well behaved and participated, which was a great surprise to the
faculty and myself.
My TA was absent again on Thursday and I was told to teach for the
day again, which I enjoyed greatly since the students worked very well.
There was an issue with developing motivation with a student who has
autism and has become unresponsive in school, but finally begun to
participate once coaxed through discussion and application of the
material to areas they are interested in. There was also a minor
problem having students stop working, they had begun to become so
invested in the social class that they were upset when it was time for
lunch and they had to put everything away even though they would be

working on it next week. So while excited for having this motivation, in

the future it would effective to prepare students by reminding them of
how much time they have before the lesson will be over.