Module 4 – Unit 5 – Activity 3 - My Biggest Fear

Module 4 – Unit 5 – Activity 3

Activity 3: Reflection Activity: My Biggest Fear

I’ve thought about this a lot, since I’m so comfortable where I teach now. I have over ten years of experience in the classroom, and after calculating it, I’ve realized that I’m way past the 10,000 mark that some people use to measure one’s mastery of something.

I do well in classrooms. I get along well with children. I have no problem being strict if the moment calls for it, but I’ve also learned to make sure that the student who gets in trouble realizes that I still like them and that it wasn’t personal. I’m good at understanding how children think and realizing when they don’t understand something.

However, there are a couple of things that I am a bit nervous about.  I’ve never had to lesson plan more than one week in advance. I believe that this type of organization and structure is something that I will stress out about adapting to at first. I still don’t  see exactly how you can plan for how quickly or slowly students will learn a certain concept. Which I guess leads to my second point, which is differentiating instruction in the classroom. I’ve done a little bit in my current job, but I think that in order to be a successful teacher in a normal school, and in order to do what’s best for the students, that it’s imperative that I try to always teach them at the correct level.

This, then, goes back to preparation and planning, which I guess is something that’ll come with a little bit of practice.

And, finally, I’ve been reading blogs from quite a few teachers lately, and they all decorate their rooms, and try to make cute handouts to sell on TPT. And while I do understand the appeal of doing that, I wonder if that kind of stuff is actually necessary. If the teacher teaches well, and the students are enjoying class, then all of that cutesy stuff…is it completely necessary, or is a lot of it for visitors who visit the classroom and can think, “Wow! This looks like a real classroom!”

But…in terms of the actual teaching of material…I have no qualms about how well I will teach, nor how well I will interact with the students, nor how much the students will enjoy being in my class.