1. My feedback on your teaching so far:
-- Your classroom management is much improved; you seem more in control and more
confident about being in control
-- You do have a habit of forgetting things, but you know that, so you need to make sure you're
well organized and you have your materials planned well in advance. You've done a good job
with this, especially since I haven't provided you with a lot of materials and you're improvising a
lot of stuff without much input from me.
-- I know why you're teaching certain things, but sometimes the "why" gets lost in the lesson.
You don't always need to tell students why you're doing every little thing, but you should make
sure that they see the point of every single lesson. This can sometimes be difficult to convey, but
if you remember that the emphasis is on teaching actual skills, then you can remind them of the
skill they are learning (and perhaps the real-world application of such a skill).
-- I'm very impressed with your Service Learning project idea, and I like how you've taken the
initiative to collaborate with Judi and work out the details of a pretty complicated project with
the kids who are seen as the most challenging ones in the whole school. Nicely done!
-- I think the Cinema class needs some more explicit direction from you. I don't know that they
understood why they were watching all those documentaries or what they were supposed to learn
from it. And they may or may not be working efficiently in groups anymore, so keep a close eye
on their productivity and adjust accordingly.
-- Keep in mind that the stretch from Feb vacation to April vacation is considered the toughest
teaching time of the year, and you are teaching two of the most challenging classes in the school
(with Comp 9 D and E), so don't get discouraged when lessons don't work perfectly. The lessons
have been mostly successful, and that's a good thing.
-- You could easily start teaching "for real" with the skills and abilities you have now. So don't
sweat it.