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First lesson/ First Assessment
After being postponed
for just under two weeks we got to deliver our first session on Monday
18/01/10. Our lesson was a crash course to applying acting styles. Rhian and I
decided upon three different acting styles that interested us, we did this to
help our confidence – being comfortable with the material we were delivering in
this session. However, our mentor Chris decided he would like to assess this,
our first, lesson. He chose to do this as he believed it would help to show a
progression in our professional practice logs, demonstrating our teaching ability
advance from lesson one to the end of our teaching practice. However, this
assessment seemed to add extra pressure to the already nerve wracking situation
of it being my first experience of teaching.
I
began the session after our mentor introduced us and the unit we would be
covering in the next few weeks. I started with a brief introduction to set out
the structure of the morning’s session before Rhian took them for a warm up. I
feel this was when I was most nervous within the session and as a result less
effective. I let my nerves take over, my mouth went dry and I was unable to get
words and sentences out effectively. However, I joined in with Rhian’s warm up
activities – this helped me to calm down and regain my focus for the next part
of the session.
I
began my section of the session looking at Surrealism. I began by gathering the
students into a circle where they read out information from a handout I had
created. The students responded well to this activity and nominated themselves
to read aloud. I expanded on the information supplied on the handout and simplified
some ideas to aid and confirm the students comprehension of the subject before
moving on to an activity. The activity was taken from the first Surrealist
manifesto by Andre Breton and was written in a style that was not necessarily conducive
to understanding and as a result I was confronted with five blank faces, with quizzical
looks in their eyes. As a result I attempted to simplify the activity, of
automatic writing, into my own words. Three of the five students responded very
well to this activity and created some interesting work which they were
confident to present in front of each other. The other two struggled with the
activity and were not as confident to share there work, however, I looked over
the work they had created and it was of a good standard.
I
did have classroom management issues, with one student in particular,
throughout the session. The student seemed pre-occupied and was quite unwilling
to participate. I decided to talk to her during the first activity and find out
if she was finding the activity difficult and attempted to encourage her that
any work she did (whether she shared it or not) would be beneficial to her –
and that there was no right or wrong response to this exercise (which is very
true). During the activity for the second acting style I taught the student
demonstrated even less enthusiasm and when split into groups to work on an
activity she did not contribute at all. She also had her mobile out writing
text messages, however, when asked to put it away she did so but still remained
uninvolved and refused to perform.
We
took a break after my sessions on acting styles, before Rhian took over the
session. This student who had been preoccupied during my sessions did not
return after the break. She had told our tutor Chris she was leaving but did
not inform us. However, it seemed that she did have a reason for her less than
enthusiastic response to our lesson and so I am hoping to see a more active
response from her in our next lesson.
It
also became obvious during our lesson that there were relationships in the
class that could become an issue if we let it. One relationship is that one
girl doesn’t like performing in front of or working with another girl – for effective
management of this I feel it is necessary for them to be kept apart in group
tasks but that we discuss group cohesion, possibly create a group contract. The
second relationship is two students who will always work together, if given the
chance. The issue with this relationship is they know that they can put in
minimal effort and still produce work of a reasonable standard. Rhian and I have
decided that in the future we shall try to separate them where possible.
I
had to join in with Rhian’s part of the session as we were a student down after
our student decided to make an escape during the break! However, me being
involved in the activity was beneficial. The two students who just ‘blag’ their
work felt encouraged to work, having me in their group, and thus created a
script based performance that was effective, well thought out and structured.
What
I found most daunting about teaching was the student’s faces. Students all
around looking at you with blank, uninterested, or “I don’t get it” expressions
on their faces can be, at times, very off putting. Occasionally I would get one
or two students who appeared vaguely interested, at this point I would begin to
turn my focus to them and deliver the session to those few students. It took me
a while to realise I was doing this and then to consciously make the decision
that I needed to engage everyone in the class, to benefit the students learning.
Motivation
of the students is going to be our biggest task for the foreseeable future. However,
for the moment I am using the excuse it was 9.30 Monday morning. We are going
to have to find ways and means of engaging and encouraging students to be more
eager and involved, to get the best work from them.