Comic Superheroes and the Art of Validating Answers

We've been studying superheroes all week! And will be for the next like six weeks!! Yay!!

Today I had a great discussion with my CT about responding to student responses, which stemmed out of an actual incident in class. I posed a question to the class, and Student A raised his hand to answer. His answer was not what I was looking for, and I told him so. Student B raised her hand, said practically the same thing that Student A did, and yet I didn't shut down her response as an incorrect one. 

Honestly I didn't ever realize that I had, in a nutshell, invalidated Student A's response by letting Student B answer when they were saying basically the same thing as Student A. My CT brought it to my attention, and then we talked about ways to avoid doing that. It's something she still finds herself doing, and she's been teaching for 15 years. That's one thing I don't understand about my classmates who are student teaching too, and their CT's leave the room when they take over. Who would be there to notice things like that if my CT wasn't in the room? How would I know that this was something I was doing if my CT hadn't pointed it out?

My problem with it was not that she was giving me a critique, but rather that I had failed my students somehow and/or had not met some ridiculous expectation that I had set for myself. I tend to hold myself to pretty high standards and when I fail to meet those standards, my usual reaction is to cry. I know, I know. Like I said, it's not that I was freaking out at my CT for calling me on that, but rather that I was disappointed in myself and was upset at failing. So we had that conversation about how that's a skill that takes teachers years to learn.

So I wouldn't say that it was a failure, by any means. Heck, Student A may not have even noticed that I had done that. But I know now, and will strive to not do that anymore.

Tomorrow I get to test out my lesson that I want to use for my observation from my PTI at UNM. I'll probably be back Thursday with a report of how the observation went.

Tata!

4th period lesson - The Odyssey

Today's lesson went great! Another copycat: I did with 4th period what my CT did with 3rd period yesterday.

Pronouns went way better today too! Yay! This section of pronouns was easier than the last section too. I clarified for them when apostrophes should and should not be used. Now they're empowered to never ever ever ever use apostrophes when using possessive pronouns! And to know the difference between your and you're, as well as their, they're, and there. I hope if they leave my class learning nothing else, they will at least have learned that difference and will never ever make that mistake again!
We started "The Odyssey" today, and I think they're going to like it. I mean, who wouldn't love a story full of sex, fighting, blood, and maritime adventure?! :)

One thing I need to work on in my own teaching, that I noticed today, is how to make sure I stay on track and my students learn what I want them to learn. While I was observing my CT teaching this lesson yesterday and taking notes, I jotted down in the textbook things I thought were important and things she touched on with the other class. But as I read out loud and then started talking to them about what happened, summarizing characters, etc. I got a few confused looks and started feeling like I was wandering all over the place in my discussion and my "lecturing", if you could call it that. Maybe I'll pick my CT's brain about how to make sure I stay on track.

For my seminar class at college, we need to develop a professional development plan. Ugh. I need to pick her brain about that too. I'm probably going to do mine on classroom management, but we'll see what she says too.

Today is going to be a looooonnnngggg day. Teaching, work, and more work tonight. (Jack White is playing at Popejoy tonight!). So we'll see what tomorrow is like, and how much coffee I'll need to make it through! :)