A little late but better than never.

I am in the third term of my Masters in Education, or GTEP - Graduate Teacher Education Program. It is Summer to Summer, five terms in all. Summer was fine. Fall I got to observe my Cooperating Teacher (CT) and also had the opportunity to practice teaching. Most often I would watch her teach 1st period, and then i would copy her and teach the same thing 4th period. Now that it is winter term I am in full time student teaching 1. Since we got back from Christmas break I have been teaching 4th period every day. I have just last week started teaching both 1st and 4th, both of which are 10th grade Geometry. But these are 5-8th grade gifted middle school students.

The best part of teaching 1st and then 4th is that I can modify what I think worked and didn't work. Also, 1st goes a bit slow and 4th is quite quick, so I have to come up with things to keep them engaged on the spot. I like this, it is good training.

Today I was supposed to meet with my cohort leader to go over my work sample. I was very frustrated that once I got there it was all about his agenda and not mine. I am going to send him an email to address this because I don't think my needs are being met. I really needed some review of what i had so far and some structured information on where to go from here. I feel like i have to figure it all out on my own and it is very frustrating for me. Is he just doing this so we know what it is like when we start teaching? Grrr.

On the brighter side, because of a geography bee today, I had to improvise in class. I really had a good time working with the students on some spur of the moment "law of sine" problems. They brought up several good questions and points that I want to address further tomorrow. I think they really like to negotiate and push my buttons, to see what they can get away with. All in all though I feel really confident around them, but still need some improvement. I know that if this was my own classroom it would be a bit different because I would have a deeper understanding of the classroom culture. While I have a pretty good understanding, my CT did point out that she does allow them to try to negotiate, sometimes she goes with what they want and others, she says "NOPE."

I want to take some time every day to really get into what I am feeling and going through in the class. What works and what doesn't and my emotional responses as well.