Teaching has been swell. The students are enjoying my lessons and are responding well. I regularly use media, especially YouTube, to support my lessons and wrap up ideas with formative assessment (although I'm a bit behind with marking). They are picking up the material better than I expected and seem interested. Today, I taught them about bioaccumulation with an activity I learned during my Project Wild workshop in 2008. Here's a lesson plan with construction paper instead of popsicle sticks.
Part of an effective class is good planning. Foresee your problems (i.e. have a whistle and lay down ground rules, boundaries), especially when your plan involves kids running around in a gym. Make sure they know the consequences (i.e if there's too much chaos, they know that the activity ends and we all go back to the classroom).
To a teacher from the south, it looked like a regular class. To a teacher up north, that was a fantastic job, especially when you had half the class activity participating, giving answers and in the last ten minutes, they're still writing (instead of standing at the door waiting for recess.
These are the days I work for.
Good job!
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