That's a Wrap (On My Seven Week Teaching Unit).

First off I would just like to say that I was utterly terrified of this semester. I imagined this fall to be when I realized that teaching just wasn't for me and possibly I should look into another career. Maybe I should go retro and be a pager salesman, or what about going to work for an apple store and then I can use my man-bun to become the ultimate hipster. After seven weeks of formulating my own lessons and teaching my students, it is safe to say that those fears have subsided and are now replaced with the paralyzing anxiety of teaching multiple classes the entire spring, but hey, c'est la vie. 

This semesters teaching has shown me a few things about myself as a teacher, and about teaching in general. I have learned through my seven weeks of teaching that as hard as you try to plan a lesson that goes smoothly and will be a hit with the students, your plan still has a great chance of falling flat on its face. I created a lesson plan that I thought would promote great collaboration and discussion between the students, but instead of pure awesomeness flowing from student to student,  they all looked at each other with blank stares. I thought it was pretty funny, especially since I have days when I correct students for talking during class, but once I have assigned time to do talking, they lose their ability to be chatterboxes. 

Having had lessons that fall flat was not such a big deal for me since I have a small classroom and could refocus them on what the objective of the lesson was for that day. I have learned that I sometimes fall into the trap as the friendly teacher guy. This means that the students want to connect with me. Which is fine. They listen to me when we speak one on one. Again, which is fine. And they tend to get hurt when I get stern and correct their undesirable behavior. Which is not fine. I don't want the students to be hurt or upset when I have to correct their behavior. Many of their other teachers correct their behavior and the students realize they were in the wrong and move on. In some circumstances with me it has been different. I have a talkative bunch of students and I had to correct a group of them because they would not keep quiet during class. I got onto them and they stopped talking, but after class one student from the group said, "I think Mr. West doesn't like me." Which is not true, but I have seen that when I discipline students they look like a little puppy who got yelled out for tearing up the furniture. They feel I have forsaken them. Maybe, not forsaken, but they are just in awe that I got all teachery on them. 

I want to create a persona as a friendly teacher, and not their friend. Author and educator Rick Wormeli states that, "We can grow closer to students when we share a common interest or work on long-term projects, but in every interaction, we remain teacher/student, mentor/mentee, not true friend, and this is wise." This is great advice for young teachers and especially student teachers because as novice educators we may see being friendly as a great way to gain student trust and likability, but there should be a direct line between educator and student. This will help insure that students see you as an authority figure and not their buddy they come and hang out with during 3^rd hour English.

My short time as the main educator for my classroom has shown me that teaching is not as daunting as I once thought it to be. Yes, creating a lesson plan and an entire unit as a new teacher can be overwhelming at first, but with the use of mapping out your semester with outlines new teachers can make their teaching experience less of a stressful ordeal. My MT showed me how to map out the unit I was teaching. We found our starting date and our end date. We agreed that 7 weeks would be sufficient time for our students to complete their book as well as their essay. Once we found the beginning and end dates we started filling in the class periods with brief description of what each day would entail. This made it easier when creating my lesson plan because I already knew what they kids were supposed to be learning that day, now I had to create learning activities to help achieve the goals and standards connecting to the unit. Having an IUG (Integrated Unit Guide) has helped tremendously because it gives the standards necessary for the unit and you can choose from the assigned materials that are provided. For experienced teachers this may seem cumbersome, but as a rookie I was more than willing to follow any suggestions the IUG had offered me.

My unit plan this semester was a thrilling time for me because I got to see myself in action as a teacher for the first time. There were times I struggles and times I surprised myself with my teaching skills, but I was always learning from the good and the bad. Now that my unit plan has ended I have stepped back and am now observing/co-teaching again and I am completely bored not being in control of my classroom. I thought I would be happy once my unit plan was over, but now I am experiencing a postpartum depression of sorts because I miss having the excitement of teaching my students every day.

Articles Cited:

Ferlazzo, L. (2011, October 25). Response: Can Teachers Be Friends With Students? -- Part One. Retrieved November 7, 2015.