Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #2

For my final blog post, I want to use a recent lesson which I videotaped that provided a glimpse into some Japanese culture; both the lesson plan and videotape will serve as my artifacts. While I am very proud of the entire lesson and how well it went, I am going to focus solely on the introduction to the lesson (which I critiqued for my videotape analysis). During this introduction, I presented a new form of classroom management, oriented the students to some of the lesson's activities/plans, and gave them my ground rules for the lesson. I really feel that I did a great job communicating my intentions and expectations for the students during this time. My classroom management strategy consisted of signs which my mentor teacher suggested; I made these with color, picture, and word reinforcement so that students would know what I expected of them (red with zipped mouth for quiet work, yellow with a hand raised for being called on, and green with an open mouth for choral response). I introduced these, provided example questions, and referred back to them for behavior throughout the lesson. Also, by presenting my intentions at the beginning of the lesson, I was able to tell the students what would happen for the next half hour and my expectations for their behavior throughout all the parts. They understood that we had to go through a process before they could enjoy the ending of the lesson (they saw me carrying in a bowl for food, and I told them that they had to pay attention to my lesson to see what was in the bowl).

I feel that this fulfills Characteristic #2, the effective communicator. I feel that my communication and classroom management have improved drastically over the years, and this was a prime example. The classroom management strategy and explanation of the day's events worked extremely well to make sure the students stayed on task and appreciated each part of the lesson.