Does that dog have a gas mask on?
I finally got to teach my unit in
my class, and I was surprised to have such a wonderful time! The students
apparently have dual personalities. I was so nervous getting up and teaching
them, based on what I had seen on how they treat my MT. Add to that, I had my
observation that day, I was sweating bullets. I started the day with the normal
routine of bell work and really overestimated what I thought my students could
handle, but we quickly moved beyond that. The story that we worked on was
called “Can Animals be Brave?” It was mostly over how a few animals were used
for war. I decided to print off more pictures of the different roles of animals
during war-time. I brought some pictures of horses and dogs wearing gas masks
from WWI and WWII eras. The students were so interested in the pictures, and
had loads of questions. I was so happy that they were interested in what I was
showing them, I honestly didn’t care if they were still rambunctious or not. I
don’t usually like to have students just yell out questions and answers, but
the fact that they were wanting to learn more, I didn’t care one bit if they
were loud.
For the whole week, I taught them,
and they were so good for me. It made me feel better to know that they were
receptive to me. (I also bribed them with stickers) I honestly think that the
personality of the teacher makes all the difference in the world. I love to
teach, and that comes through in the way that I interact with the students. I
saw a drastic change after the first day with them. They went from being very
disruptive, to volunteering to read. And, when I thought it couldn’t get
better; they started to volunteer for multiple paragraphs, raising their hands
with questions, and engaging in thought provoking discussions. There was only
one moment when there was a disagreement on a comment, and someone was called a
name. I simply stopped the discussion and taught the students how to use
academic language to have differing opinions during a discussion. It was smooth
sailing from there.
Now that I have had the opportunity
to work with the students in this class, the more I think I like the thought of
teaching in an ESL setting. This is a unique challenge that I find thrilling. I
am lucky that I have the TESOL for my middle school as my MT.
