First Time Teaching

On Monday of this week, I taught for the first time in my school. I taught a lesson on parallel and perpendicular lines in my teacher’s Algebra I B class of third year high school students, all of whom are only freshmen or sophomores by credits. I observed the class for three school days prior to teaching so that I would have a really good feel for where they were in terms of the information they had covered. The class lasted for an hour and a half, and I taught the whole time. At first, that seemed a little daunting, but I actually ran out of time and did not get to do everything that I had planned. I found it hard to plan for how long activities would take, so I did not write out the amount of time I wanted to spend on each activity. Next time, I think it would be helpful to at least guess and give myself a range of times so that I can make sure we get to do all of the topics I have planned.

Overall, I think the lesson went fairly well for my first time teaching. However, there were several behavior issues that I had no idea how to handle. I found myself getting a little frustrated with myself while I was teaching because I didn’t know what to do about it. I would say that that was probably the only major problem I encountered while teaching though, which was encouraging. My mentor teacher took notes the entire time I taught, including both good and bad things, and most of the bad things dealt with classroom management. He said I did a very good job about getting students involved and not giving up on them when they were struggling to come up with concepts. I wanted the students to come up with the idea that the slopes of perpendicular lines are opposite reciprocals so that it would be more meaningful to them than if I just told them that. I asked them questions for several minutes and thought that I was going to have to end up telling them the relationship, but they eventually discovered the concept on their own, even using correct terminology—which was very exciting to me. He also told me that I did a good job of praising students for good ideas that they voiced. He had the students write a few sentences about how I did and most of them said that I did a good job, but several students said I was too quiet. That is something that I will try to remember the next time I teach.

Reflecting on teaching, I think I did pretty well for my first time and that I was very comfortable with the content. Also, I tried to include different activities that required the students to come up with examples and solve problems on their own and then show their answers on the board. In general, all of his students love coming up to the board to show their work, even volunteering to do so when my teacher doesn’t ask them to do that. I wanted to be able to keep the students engaged in the same way that he does, and I did so fairly well. I am still a little disappointed about the classroom management aspect of my teaching, but my teacher told me that it is something that comes with time. To improve my ability to deal with situations, I plan on paying closer attention to how my teacher handles issues and to ask him about certain situations that arise about which I have questions. This teaching should be a learning experience, and I look forward to improving as I reflect on the comments made by my teacher and by the students. Teaching on Monday was a little nerve racking, but it made me excited to have teaching as my profession.