Right or Wrong... Good or Bad... when trying judge a situation I feel that equal weight needs to be placed on each side before rendering judgement. Usually the person presenting their side is looking for justification or affirmation that they are right for feeling the way they feel. In this case the host teacher is wanting justification, but so is the student teacher... and I say, both handled the situation poorly!
Clearly, both teachers had some idea as to how the lesson should have played out... it was a good plan on that both seemed to agree... the execution of the plan was differing from what the host teacher envisioned right from the start. She would have done things differently and in that difference it began to affect her orderly and controlling nature, which also began to heighten her anxiety, which led to errors in judgement. Sandra had her own expectations and when things were going differently instead of mentoring she let what she felt was a disaster spiral even further out of control before over stepping. (please keep in mind that it is only from Sandra's perspective that things were out of control). Sandra had a teachable moment in the making, but instead cut it off and missed it. There is in my opinion a great deal that can be learned from failures (I do NOT think this was a failure by any means) or lessons Not going exactly as planned... you get to refine an hone your craft by learning what Not to do as well what works. Mainly because what works with one group will not with other groups so as dynamics change so does the lesson and you as the facilitator may even learn something new that needs added to the lesson.
Case in point, when I was student teaching in the middle school I had four forty-five minute back to back social studies classes every afternoon right after lunch ... fresh off the playground. The classes varied in ability, but were generally evenly mixed for 6th grade level students... I basically gave the same lecture and activities to all four groups, but my host teacher and I both recognized that the 3rd and 4th group performed better... Not because they had a higher ability level, but because they benefited from me making adjustments to the lessons and activities by seeing what worked and what didn't. We also agreed that the first group coming back from lunch was a harder group initially engage and teaching to that group was the greatest challenge... if my host teacher would have shut me down on that first group everyday... I would Not have learned how to make the adjustments necessary... Was she going to have to deal with those students for the rest of the year... you betcha! By allowing me to struggle and offer some guiding suggestions we developed a different strategy for that group to help them better prepare for their afternoon classes. This collaboration was beneficial to both of us, because she was going to have students for the remainder of the year. Sandra missed what I would call a great teachable moment... Not just for her student teacher, but also for herself.
The student teacher is also at fault because No matter how bad it gets you need to be in control of your emotions. If a host teacher stops your lesson because it's not going well.. the lesson is not going well.. it's Not the end of the world... step back and adjust to the immediate needs of the students... help to transition them back to the classroom. Try to find a way forward for the remainder of the day and when the students leave for the day sit down with your host teacher and discuss the matter. Learning how to develop a working relationship with colleagues is vital to your future success as an educator. In the modern co-taught classrooms learning how to work everyday with a peer starts with good communication... and many times a week you are going to have to reflect on what worked and what did Not so changes can be made... and this I guarantee some of the things that go wrong will be your fault... Own IT... Fix It... Talk about It... but most of All.... Learn from It! But don't just be mad and hurt ... and the biggest thing to learn is if you are going to or need to cry... cry on the drive home... and then prepare for another day.
Experience is Not learned, taught, or gained from reading a book... it comes from doing... and the doing requires practice, preparation, and perseverance! At the end of the day I do Not know if the student teacher thought the goals of the lesson were going to be met... What I do know is sometimes students just exploring with little intervention may discover far more then you ever imagined. If the only goal you have as a teacher is for students to only discover meaning in what's important to you then you should find something else to do because you are wasting your time, but more important than that is the adverse affect on students. Sad but True! How does that parable go.... "the tighter you grip the sand in your hand the more you lose"... classrooms need to be safe places for students to explore and discover meaning, Not centers for single thoughts.
3 comments:
I love your final paragraph summing everything up. Like you, I saw room for improvement from both sides of the situation, and felt Sandra missed a chance to really help her student teacher.
I'm lucky that in teaching English, I am tied to skills rather than content. This lets me have each of my classes working with resources appropriate to them, and it mixes things up because I'm not doing the same thing over and over every day- each class is different. Being able to work with each class differently according to needs has enabled them to achieve growth and gain more confidence. It means 3 x the planning, but once you find the groove, it's easier than trying to fit them all in the same box. With Social Studies and Science, I know you have to cover specific content, and that makes it trickier.
It's true that we're hearing the story only from Sandra's perspective, so it's hard to say just how "out of control" things actually were. I've met many a seasoned teacher who maintain such a controlled environment in their classrooms that I think it would be hard for anyone to step into and be successful unless they simply mimicked what their host teacher did. It may be that Sandra is a teacher who has very specific expectations, although she didn't seem too interested in knowing the details of the lesson beforehand. That's a recipe for disaster. Also, you are right that Michelle should have held her emotions in check, except that it makes me wonder a couple of things...was there already stress in the relationship that would cause Michelle to respond with such emotion? Or did Michelle recognize that things were getting out of hand and was already feeling helpless when Sandra stepped in and made her feel even worse? Maybe the kids were having fun and investigating new things around them, as you said, and maybe Michelle wanted to give them the freedom to do that. It's difficult to say, but definitely complicated.
Very good point about needed to be in control of your emotions. I'm sure that supervising teacher has wanted to run out of her class crying many times due to problems with her class, parents and/or administrators many times not to mention personal problems like morning a loved one, relationship/marital problems and/or parenting problems. That student teacher was very unprofessional to run off like that. I did not give that as much thought as I should have.
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