Comments on 'Hook Lesson'

 

 

Having examined the video sent by Dr. Kajder to me via e-mail, I noticed that I did not appear as nervous during the session as I actually felt.  Such a feeling is nothing new to me.  No matter how many courses or classes I may have taught in the past or will teach in the future, I will always have some element of anxiety hovering over me.  That having been stated, however, I find my 'groove,' so to speak, after I have taught a new class for about the second or third meeting.  Another issue, which I will have to grapple with this year (and years to come, of course) is the fact that I am out of my comfort zone.  I have never attempted to teach (or even tutor) literature on any level.  I am a philologist and grammarian.  It will take a little time for me to adjust to teaching in a new field.

 

In addition, I realize that my delivery would have been more effective had I instructed the students to read from the poem line-by-line while I presented the props.  Such a set-up would have more actively engaged the students and freed me from having to look down upon the page.  I should have avoided this back-and-forth movement between reading the poem and desperately searching for the props.  It would have been conducive to the entire teaching process if I had simply set up ahead of time all the props in the order in which I was to present them.  Five minutes can go by very quickly, and I was so pressed for time.  I was surprised to have learned that I still had a few seconds left at the end of the presentation.

 

Dr. Kajder mentioned that I might have waited until the end of the presentation for the students to underline or put parentheses around the passages in the poem.  Since the point of the presentation was to make visual what the students hear (or read), then that makes sense.  I clearly did not think that part of the presentation out very well.  To plan is one thing; to execute, another.  And regarding planning, I was surprised to learn how much time teachers (as well as aspiring teachers) spend on planning.  I, too, spent a relatively substantial amount of time planning years ago when I first began teaching Latin as a graduate student.  However, the more I taught, the less planning I noticed I did.  My emphasis turned from 'How do I teach this?' to 'What do need to cover today?'  I suppose that I am now back to 'How do I teach this?'

 

With the windmills of my mind turning, I see how problematic the bottles of prescription medication can be in the presence of young, impressionable people.  I could have represented the drugstore better had I brought in, say, some band-aids, a bottle of aspirin, and maybe a tube of neosporin.  I know what kids are like (I was once one, I think).  Therefore, I should take into consideration every aspect of my teaching, whether by lecture, presentation, demonstration, tutoring one-on-one, etc.  Another important point:  the puppy dog was visible because I had placed few props upon the table.  By the time the cars were racing side-by-side at the end of my little demonstation, however, I noticed in the video that students were unable to see the toy cars, at least not so well.  Maybe I needed I bigger table.

 

My last observation:  Man, do I look old!  Auta i lome.  

 

 

 

 

 



A couple of things surprise me about what 'real' planning is according to these experienced teachers.  For example, Lisa mentions that she plans sometimes with standardized tests in mind.  I understand that often this is unavoidable.  I was surprised, however, to witness a teacher actually admitting to it.  Another somewhat surprising thing that I have learned is that Adam uses an electronic planner.  How do you submit copies of THAT to your principal?  I suppose one could send an e-mail, but don't the administrators need hard copies? 
The teacher videos confirmed much of my own experiences and thinking.  Like Mary, I planned for every day when I taught high school Latin.  I also found myself having to make adjustments to my plans.  Hence, flexibility was a must.  Like Crystal's experience, my plans often did not turn out the way I envisioned at the time I first drafted them.  I had to learn to be patient and willing to adapt to be successful and effective in my teaching and planning. 
I noticed a number of recurring themes:  fluidity, collaboration with colleagues, planning with the needs of the students in mind, backward planning.  I understand the importance of all these.  However, collaboration wasn't a feasible approach in my own teaching experience, primarily becsause I was the only Latin teacher in the school.  Therefore, how could my colleagues who knew no Latin help in my planning?  Well, one could argue that I could have collaborated with the other foreign language teachers.  That sounds viable, but in reality it isn't.  Latin is not necessarily taught the way the modern foreign languages are.  Although perhaps some collaboration would have been possible, it nevertheless would be quite limited in its range and effectiveness.
Auta i lome.