Taking a Breath

So This is the life of an education student:

• Inspiring, intensely passionate classes
• a ton of repeated introductions
• a quick rapport and an easy bond with other Ed. Students
• a whole lot of groups
• about a thousand group projects, essays, lesson plans, and micro-teaches (okay, maybe not a thousand...exactly...)

This has been some week. I'm trying to think reflectively about specific lessons and classes, but everything seems to blur into each other and overlap, like an out of focus film. Everything touches on another aspect covered in another class, and I suspect that the reason for it is that teaching is a holistic profession. If there is one theme running through it all, it's that you can't teach in a vaccuum. (Though I suspect no one has actually tried to set up class inside a hoover...) What I mean by that is: It has to be a holistic approach to the students and the subject, because as human beings, students have so many other things in their life that need to be taken into account that influence everything from behaviour to learning styles to the choice to fidget or doodle in class. If those things act on and influence students, they impact the class too, and the class itself will probably influence the students' life outside it.

A specific lesson I took alot away from however, was the "Teacher as a Preformer" seminar. There was something really relieving about acting out situations that started out troublesome, and just gradually got worse. My first journal entry, I outlined some of my fears, which really do trouble me at times. Mostly fears of not getting it right. So it was worthwhile for me to put into practice some of the techniques and procedures for dealing with bad situations, if just to soothe my own fears. I never really knew what to do if a student was talking out of turn, or being insolent. Now I know some things I can do, some ways to react to it, instead of flying by the seat of my pants.

I also appreciated the activities in the beggining of class. The "get to know your nieghbour" game was a great way to avoid that awkward self-introduction, and get that uncomfortable, alone feeling out of the room. It lightened the mood, and brought everyone to the same level. I think there was a deffinite camraderie within that room, and it just got better, even though the situations we were supposed to act out steadily got worse, eventually leading to an acted out fist-fight. It was a great class, and I know that I'll deffinitely use the "get to know your neighbour" game in my own classroom at some point.