Video Review: Part Deux

So now that I've watched myself again 3 weeks after I last taught, I'm somewhat disappointed. Well, to be fair, this was the very first lesson I taught of the week, and it was probably the least interesting of the 5 I taught that week, but still........ a little bit of a let down. I didn't realize how "lecture-like" I am. I think the biggest problem for me is assuming "Hey, because this stuff really interests me it will interest my kids too." This is way off because basically I'm a huge dork. I like reading literature. Almost all literature. Even literature that many people find boring. I remember a certain English MTC "vet" telling the rest of us English teachers not to teach something that the kids can't relate to. His specific examlpe was Robert Frost's "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" because, according to him, "these kids have never seen snow before and they won't care." It was an excellent point, but I could't help chuckling to myself because I had taught that exact poem in Summer School thinking the kids would really appreciate the images and the message. And I think they did, but it took a large amount of effort on my point to "sell" them poem and to get them to appreciate it. All of this is a long way of saying I need to find more inductive ways of teaching. At least my sets should be more student-learning centered instead of me just telling them a concept and then giving funny examples and then pointing it out in a text that I think is "interesting." I think one of my strongest assets (as confirmed by this video) is that I honestly listen to what kids say, even if they're joking around or stay something off topic, and try to turn that into something valuable and worthwhile or, at the very least, important. By that, I mean I try to make them feel that they can say anything to me. If it's inappropriate or purposely off-topic I'll reprimand them, but at least they know I'm listening and in most cases genuinely want to hear what they think. But I've been falling into the trap of believing that this was "good enough" and in some places replaced my fun, engaging activities which I wasn't really doing. Also, after spending a week with teachers who had amazing sets for almost every lesson, I really began to feel guilty. Overall though, I feel like if I could liven up and use some techniques that get kids curious and inquisitive and excited at the beginning of the lesson, then the rest of my lesson (lecture/activity/notes/etc.) would be a lot more worthwhile for them.