Not Giving Up!

This week has been one of the hardest and most important weeks at Penn GSE.

My CM was out for three days this past week. Therefore, I had to help a substitute teach the class and carry through the lesson plan. For those of you who have forgotten, students tend to go crazy, bounce all over the wall, and test the limits. As you can imagine, my first day with the substitute was far from pleasant. The children were misbehaving and the substitute arrived late. I took the moment and began teaching the class while the substitute was catching up with the lesson plans. Things went well for a while and the students began to test the limits. By the end of the day, I was very sad and emotional about the students conduct.

I took the next two days to analyze and synthesis what had occur. I reverted to some of the articles we have been reading regarding classroom management and strategies for effective teaching. I decided to, although It wasn't required, to return the classroom before the weekend. I wanted to end on a better note and give teaching a lesson another try. I did want to give up and I felt I had the tools to teach my class without my CM

I returned to the classroom for Friday afternoon after class at Penn GSE. I quickly got into the classroom and before I knew it, I had the class silent reading, doing math worksheets, and writing in their journals. It was an incredible experience and it was the difference between night and day! More importantly, not only were the students being productive but I was also establishing relationships with them. It was a great learning experience and one that will stay with me. I felt like a quarterback that threw the game winning pass at the Super-Bowl.