This week has been a pretty good week. Students finally got the idea that I will be teaching them every class now and THEY ALSO REMEMBER MY NAME!!! I am not just "hey" or "teacher" anymore I am "Miss Kwong". And this gives me authority. Students now listen to me when I ask them to do or not do something.
This week I also had many firsts. On Monday, Winzie, Jen and I attended our first official monthly staff meeting. It was nice to see what these meetings are about. During this meeting teachers and principals had to discuss, report and/or remind each other about certain things, such as what teachers and students will have to do for the school concert that is coming up in Dec, clubs, workshops, etc.
On Tuesday I tried teaching the whole day for the first time (4 kindergarten classes and 2 grade 2 classes). I was exhausted by the end of the day. So I do not know how my teacher can do this every day/week.
And on Thursday for the first time, my grade 3 class was fully engaged into the song we were learning, the "Old Brass Wagon". I must admit this was quite a catchy tune.
I also taught/helped flute, clarinet and trumpet students with their band music for the first time . I find it extremely difficult to keep track of the parts each instrument is playing or has to play. I cannot imagine how stressful it would be to teach the whole band.
Yay Miss Kwong! That reminds me... you have to give me a copy of those songs and games you used!!! See you on Monday!
ReplyDeleteHi Amy,Friday was funnn!! I'm glad we accomplished a lot in a day and ended up with a good meal!
ReplyDeleteI wish I can observe a staff meeting too, it's strange that my school haven't had any staff meetings so far. or maybe I'm not aware of?
Seems like you had fun teaching the elementary classes. I've observed a few of my grade 5 students in their music rotary classes as well, most of the time they were very chatty and talking silly stuff in class. I realize the class size is big, almost 40 students. The music teacher at my school is patient enough and had many small activities to "surprise" them and keeping their attention for a while. I've noticed that he always save the "good part" near the end, so students would have something to look forward to. Maybe you can try that too with your students?