First Observation

I taught my first 6th grade math lesson on Thursday and was observed by my professor and I'm happy to report that it went very well :) I was so worried and prepared for the worst.  I spent a ton of time on my lesson plan.  I guess that is normal for first time teachers but I can't imagine having a life outside of teaching my first year if it takes so long to plan lesson/units. It probably takes me two hours per lesson.  So multiply that by the four or more subjects an elementary teacher teaches each day and that's a lot of time! I'm starting to think it's a smart idea to teach at a middle school so you only teach a couple of subjects.  I really enjoy teaching sixth grade and will now be happy to teach whatever grade I can. 
My lesson that was observed was about adding and subtracting fractions with uncommon denominators. I had lots of partner work and the kids loved that and were really successful with it and using the manipulatives.  Afterwards my professor complimented me on the organization of my lesson and lesson plan and how methodical my teaching was (he acted like that was a good thing so I took it as one).  Suggestions were that when I ask the kids a question I need to give them more wait time.  I agree with this, I get nervous waiting and so I just fill in the silence with my own talking rather than letting the students hypothesize and voice their ideas.  Also, we have to have a language objective along with our content objective but I totally forgot to have the kids do the language objective (i.e. write in their math journals what they had discovered). I was really happy to get that observation done.  Next week I will be teaching two of the grade level math classes and will start the social studies unit I am making on the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas. 

I got to spend time with this little cutie yesterday after class.  He was tuckered out after a long day and just fell asleep on me while watching Grey's Anatomy.  He was so funny and didn't want to have his coat taken off.  I finally got it off him so that he could eat but then he still had to have it right next to him tucked in between him and his high chair.  As soon as he got done eating he grabbed his coat and carried it around with him the rest of the evening.  He also loved banging on the drums for Guitar Hero.