As I have started teaching my own material to Ms. B's classes this week, I've had to be very careful about the level of my vocabulary and the level of my material. I've started editing my materials, especially in my English 8 classes, with my students in mind. I've kept a mark-up of one particular document, Dr. O'Brien, and I'll be glad to show it to you. I feel like I'm adjusting to my audience. It's a cool feeling to now have my particular students in mind as I create my materials.
My fifth and sixth periods are both Advanced English classes, but the personalities of the classes are very different. Fifth period is active and conversational, sometimes difficult to control. Sixth period is generally subdued; sometimes it's even difficult to get class discussions rolling. I find myself lowering my volume and slowing down my presentation speed with sixth period. As with the vocabulary issue I discussed in the paragraph above, this is an issue of adjusting my manner and presentation style to my students.
I am ready to have my own students and get to know them and keep them all year instead of changing classrooms and adjusting to new students every eight weeks.
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I'm with you on that. Before I went into the classroom, I used to travel to literally hundreds of classrooms in a 15 county service area in Florida. I loved meeting new students, but it was difficult because you never really got to establish a relationship with them and to really know their abilities. I'm glad that you're cognizant of this and you're modifying instruction. Make sure you document this for your portfolio as a way that you effectively differentiate instruction.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work. I was really impressed with the class I watched last week, they made some really great comments.
OB