UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT HUMACAO ENGLISH DEPARTMENT Humacao, P.R. ______________________________________________________________________ EDPE-4006
Weekly Reflection # 3
Melanie Quintana Torres EDPE-4006 Dr. Maritza Reyes Week 3
Reality. The word that described this past week was reality. I started teaching and I felt super comfortable and secure but, this week was different. I started my practice teaching with a strong attitude I was a little strict with my students and I actually had good control. However this week I was a little loose with them because I decided that I didn’t want to be too harsh on them and I regretted it. I guess reality hit me hard. Up until it was too late I realize that I change my classroom management strategy and the students wouldn’t stop talking. My group has a lot of personality and there are a few students that talk a lot and have attitude problems. Those 5 or 6 students are really hard to deal with because they revolutionize the others. My first week went so well that I guess I got overconfident. I lowered my guard and I didn’t even realize it, until it was too late. My class on Friday was horrible I don’t know if it was because it was a Friday, I wasn’t so strict or they were tired but, it was plain horrible. I couldn’t control them 100%. They kept talking and what was worst of all was that I didn’t act quickly and I got self-conscious and started questioning my classroom management. I talked to my cooperating teacher and she told me that being a teacher is not always the same and they are days that are good and days that are not so good. She saw my frustration and told me not to be. That day I felt awful, I questioned so many things about myself that I felt terrible. I decided to put it behind me on work on what I knew and start fresh. Trial and error. Not every day is the same and not every group works the same way. I decided to start testing different techniques to see what works and what not. I felt so bad this past week that I don’t want to feel the same way. I have good students but they are very talkative and I cannot let them behave badly because I don’t want to lose my class control and feel worse about it. That Friday they were loud and talkative but it was not something out of control. That where I don’t want to be. I want to be a strict teacher but nice at the same time. By trial and error I believe I can achieve a perfect balance. Everybody has bad days and can’t let that ruin my experience. I just have to learn from my mistake be patient and optimistic. And like Steve Harvey says: “Failure is a great teacher, and I think when you make mistakes and you recover from them and you treat them as valuable learning experiences, then you've got something to share.”