Hi, my name is Socrates (a pseudonym) and I'm the creator of Teacher's Diary.
The Teaching Fellows Program I'm part of is an "alternative
certification program," meaning that we don't take the traditional
route to the classroom. Rather than attending a Masters degree program for education, we have nine intensive weeks of summer training and are thrown directly into the classroom. I have no way of knowing whether I will be prepared when I arrive at my classroom in September, but the program seems to have worked fine thus far.
Last week, I had my first interview for a teaching job, at a K-6 school in Brooklyn. A friend had recommended the school as having a very strong program and a principal who knows how to turn out good teachers. I hadn't started my training yet, so I knew nothing about how to design a lesson plan or engage a class full of twelve-year-olds. Yet this was exactly what I was asked to do.
On Friday, I received a phone call notifying me of the opportunity to interview the following Monday. I was thrilled, but nervous. The principal told me that I would be expected to give a demo lesson to a sixth grade class on ecosystems and populations, the unit they had just finished. It sounded doable, even with the short notice. I prepared for hours over the weekend, creating an activity for the students in which they would create posters of ecosystems in small groups and then present to the class. I made a poster of my own, printed out a lesson plan including the number of minutes for each part of the activity, and even created a grading rubric.
Monday rolled around and I arrived at the school just on time. The principal was busy interviewing another candidate, so I waited, watching secretaries call parents for permission slips and kids wandering in and out of the office from the long, colorful hallway. Fortunately, the teacher being interviewed was there for a physical education position, not the science position for which I was applying.
After what seemed an eternity, the principal finally called me in to her office, but there wasn't enough time for us to talk before first period started. She had a student lead me to the classroom, where the teacher had already set up the projector with an introduction to her lesson on AIDS. She had no idea I was coming, but immediately shut off her projector and stepped aside for me.
The kids filed in, I was introduced in a sentence and left standing before a somewhat silent class. The students waited expectantly for a moment, before I convinced myself it was time to start talking. I introduced my lesson, gave the groups their ecosystem assignments and passed out the poster paper and markers. Things seemed to be going well. Until the students were told to begin work on the posters.
I had prepared planning worksheets for them, bright yellow pages where they could decide what to put on the poster before covering it in marker ink. But they were spending too long filling that out and I was running from group to group, attempting to convince them that it was time to move on to the poster (while also explaining what primary and secondary consumers were, etc). Two girls in particular were not interested in participating in the project and I struggled to engage them within the 50 minute period. Meanwhile they tried their best to distract the rest of their group.
Finally, most groups had completed a large portion of their posters. I told them it was time to present and they begrudgingly turned their attention to the front of the classroom. And then I completely lost control of the class - the kids didn't want to present and those who were supposed to be listening decided it was more interesting to talk amongst themselves than pay attention to their classmates. I was at a loss for how to even begin getting their attention. I tried calling out to specific students and asking them to be quiet, I asked the presenters to speak up, but both the students and I knew that there was nothing I could do to them. And furthermore, I hadn't even learned any behavior management strategies yet.
Eventually, much to my dismay, the woman observing my interview had to step in and told them firmly that they were being very rude to me. They listened to her, falling silent and remaining relatively good for the last few minutes of class. When they finally filed out, I let out a deep breath, realizing for the first time that I had been unable to breathe for much of the class. This teaching thing, I thought, is harder than it seems.
My observer came over and told me to relax for a few minutes before the next class came in. Yes, the whole thing was to be repeated, though this time with a fourth grade gifted class.
The class was smaller and the kids more obviously wanted to learn. They were excited about their posters, adding secondary producers such as Tarzan in the rainforest ecosystem and a cowboy in the desert ecosystem. Like the sixth graders, they got a bit out of hand when it came time to present, but I firmly counted backwards from 5 and they were quiet by the time I got to 2. At the end of class, they asked whether they could keep their posters and the teacher kept them to hang in the room.
One little girl asked "Are you going to be here tomorrow?"
"No," I answered, "but maybe next year."
She smiled and said that would be great. It's amazing how good a ten-year-old can make you feel.
I don't expect to get the job, since behavior management has been a big problem for this school, but I do know that the next time I interview, I'll be much more prepared.
