On to new adventures

I'm examining, recreating and inventing new resources to use in the Oral Communications class I'm teaching this summer. This is an opportunity to teach a class I have never taught before. I'm having fun exploring and compiling tools and activities to teach research skills for persuasion speeches. My recent student teaching experience has taught me the important of thinking through each step and planning carefully. I'm planning to use my district's databases and the RADCAB approach. I'm also going to incorporate a race to create the MLA citation that one of my new colleagues told me about.

Trust and student teaching

I start student teaching in one week and I'm scared. I have worked hard to find ways to integrate technology and make learning fun and relevant for students. I'm no longer worried about my desire or ability to teach, only about my ability to communicate deftly enough to gain the trust of my cooperating teacher. She has told me that she is very strict and very protective of her classroom. The reins are held tightly in hand. As an adult embarking on a second career, I know that it will do no good to try to wrestle those reins away. Instead I will need to be patient and to earn her trust slowly so that we develop trust. Perhaps it's not her comfort level or barriers that I should worry about, but my own. Maybe I need to look inward and realize that I need to stay focussed on the students and trust that she will guide me if I let her.