Day 13

Today is relatively a good day. Settled the Year 11 IT on task with their assignment, which is due tomorrow. They are getting bored in class with their assignment hence my mentor has given me suggestion to include more things to write about in their next assignment, which is to be started next week.

One thing which i need to specify clearly is the word limit. The assignment should be of 500 - 600 words.

After lunch, the Year 8s are to continue watching the DVD "GLadiator". I took 5 mins before the bell rang, to get the keys from the library and set up the dvd player, so that when the students come in, we can go straight to watching the dvd. I like being prepared before hand. But sometimes it is hard when you don't have the keys or access to certain rooms (they are locked) and sometimes you can't find your mentor or the librarian hesitates to pass you the keys to the dvd player as she might not trust a newbie or a 'student teacher' with it.

As I go into my 3rd week teaching prac, I slowly realise that, as long as i have my lesson plans and have backups of my materials, I will be lesss inclined to be stressed out and nervous and hence I will appear to be more confident.

Although I'm beginning to notice that I'm behind schedule, in getting through my topics. We are supposed to have finished watching the dvd in 3 lessons, but now, it will be about 3.5 lessons. So that pushes forward in when we will start the next topic. I think i can still get them to finish their assignment by mid next week and then start on Ancient Japan (for the Year 8s).

Sigh....I still need to get my lesson plans started for Ancient Japan. Not to mention the lesson plans for Year 9s Goldrush and Bushrangers. I want to engage my students more about the topic, so i'm trying to think of ways (activities) to get them motivated about the topic. BUt it is hard. I am scared that if i try something new, it will get out of hand; eg they will run amok or students behaving badly, etc.

I am thinking of including Class Participation as a mark as well. I am also thinking of including Work Effort as a mark as well for their current Year 9 Explorer Assignment.