I like my student teacher. It's been a net gain for the year. I'm glad to have another adult in the room to talk with and help out, because there are more needs than I can cover alone. Nora's excited about computer science in general, so she was eager to start coming up with lesson plans to supplement CS Academy (Something I should have been doing more of, but haven't had the magic time-energy-motivation combination to do myself!).
At the same time, I'm used to running my classroom how I want to. I like the way I do things (Go figure). It's been brutal year, I think I've had some success.
So to step back and let someone run things differently can be difficult.
My teaching style is based on humor, the ability to patiently take abuse, and aggressively build positive relationships. I like a dynamic classroom with kids actively engaged in work and discussion. Nora is more academic and hasn't had as much time to build relationships with all the kids. Her ideal classroom runs much more quietly than mine and she's probably learning as many things she doesn't want to do as she is things she wants to do!
Experience is the best teacher, so Nora needs time to lead. Heck, she paid for it! It almost seems like a scam that student teachers pay UVA to work for free. I hope that I'm a good mentor and she's better equipped to teach, because of it.
As long as my wild classes don't drive Nora crazy, I think signing up to be a mentor was the right choice for the year.....but what about next year? Do I want to build up the class's rapport and then step back for a chunk of weeks before the SOLs to let someone else learn and experiment at the reigns? I don't know. I like to try different things, so I'm glad I did it as an experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment