This week was my first 5-day week with my full load of classes. Like a camera, I had to charge the battery the night before, change my settings for each class for each day, and then plug in at the end of the each each to recharge.
A camera captures a moment in time or a live video of a moment in time. This idea of time and what I am doing with my time this semester was a thought that weighed heavy on me this week. My roommate in college is a gifted photographer and she shared the quote to the left with me prior to this semester. I enjoy photography and capturing the PERFECT picture, but do not know all the settings and capabilities of my camera even though I have the manual. I correlate this to my position as a student teacher. I am the camera, equipped and ready for 15 weeks of teaching. What each minute of this 15 week experience is dedicated to is my choice, but each minute is extremely valuable.
You Focus on What's Important
My mindset coming into this semester was, "I have 15 weeks and what I putting everything else in my life on pause and giving everything I have to student teaching". I realized I have had the wrong lens on my camera for these 4 weeks. I need to put my macro lens on and see student teaching is a time to give 100% to what I am doing but also start learning work-life balance. So starting week number five I am going to be editing what I am capturing my time with.
Capture the Good Times
Good times come in all shapes and sizes. Right now, a good time is when I can have conversation outside of content with students where we can laugh and learn about each other. The good feeling you get when they want to know about you or want you to answer their questions. Another good time I had this week was the trust my students have in me. I had students ask to come down to my class so they can work and have me guide them through their work. Other good times captured are pulling selfie videos of my students up on the big screen and laughing through the video with everyone.
Develop from the Negatives
The negatives are inevitable because I am consistently learning with every class, everyday. The negatives from a camera are an already captured picture that is saved for later. As I am learning through my mistakes, I am capturing them and saving them for later. This week I was fortunate to have feedback and evaluation not only from my cooperating teacher, but my university supervisor. Two negatives that were captured and that I will be re-shooting the rest of the semester are improving my interest approach and summarizing strategies at the beginning and end of the lesson.
If Things Don't Work Out, Take Another Shot
How many pictures do you take before you capture the one you like? The answer is more than probably necessary. Well this week I had to take another shot. I took the advice from Laura Kennedy, from our pre-internship seminar, "If you did not teach the lesson well the day before, tell the students that and go back and re-teach it better the next day." This week I taught the soil triangle because the soil triangle I handed out was off centered so I had some frustrated students. After discussing it with my cooperating teacher, I realized I needed to admit I did not give them a functional resource and we need to go over this again the next day. The next day I told students to crumple up their soil triangle papers as I stood at the front of the classroom with the recycle bin they aimed, they shot, and some made and some missed. I then handed out the right triangle and re-explained it and the light bulbs went off. A common quote said is, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take". What is great about a camera is you can take another shot, just like I was able to this week.
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