REFLECTIONS:
INTASC VII:
One of my biggest fears when I started my student-teaching was classroom management. I was scared that the students would not recognize me as an authority figure, and consequently, I would have no control over my classes. Lucky for me though, my cooperating teacher had amazing class management skills and the by the time the spring semester had rolled around, he had very good control over his students. It was apparent from my first day at the school observing that his students had a great deal of respect of him, and they all behaved very well in his classes. He warned me that the students would try and "test" me when I took over the teaching responsibilities, and he was right, but I had very few problems over the course of the semester. I tried hard to befriend all of my students, and that made it a little more difficult to get them to actually work when I needed them too, but I also think it helped me out in other ways. I got along very well with all of my students, and I think they worked hard because they knew it would make me happy. Whenever a discipline problem did arise, I handled it on a one-to-one basis with the student, and it usually solved the problem immediately.
Safety in the classroom and during labs was never an issue. The students knew the rules and the behavior that was expected of them by my cooperating teacher, and they never gave me any problems. I was a little worried that having them work on the computers so much, mainly using the internet for research, could be a problem. I was afraid I might have students that would be visiting inappropriate websites, or just websites that had nothing to do with the lesson, but since the computers were actually in the classroom, and I was constantly moving about the room, they never really had the opportunity to get off-task.
As a program requirement, we attended a Science Safety Seminar in the spring and as a result of what we learned, we were to create a Science Safety Plan for our future classes. This plan outlines rules and consequences for the classroom and laboratory, and also outlines proper care and guidelines for keeping live plants and animals in the classroom. I plan to use policy when I have my own classes, and have each student, as well as their parents sign a copy. I also created an Acceptable Use Policy this semester which I plan on using in my future classes. It outlines the guidelines for researching on the internet, the consequences of inappropriate behavior when using class computers, and also has a permission slip for the student and their parents to sign.
As far as incorporating Virginia Standards of Learning and National Science Education Standards into my lesson plans, it was not difficult at all. I used the SOLs especially, to help me create my lesson plans. They gave me a framework so that I knew for sure what was expected of my students. Otherwise, I would not have known how in-depth to go with certain subjects, or even what subjects to include sometimes. At times I felt a little pressured to fit in all of my lessons in time for the SOLs at the end of the year, but I was able to finish all of the activities that I wanted.