Capture/Reflection 3

I am so happy that we went to visit the middle school today. I loved interacting with the kids. It's the first time this semester I felt confident that I could be a teacher. Middle-schoolers aren't even intimidating!!!! Who knew?
The classroom was very large and spacious with a high ceiling. This created a very relaxed environment that was easy to focus. There was seating available at 3 large tables and at the other half of the room there were computer stations for each child. The class sizes I monitored were from 28 students to 33 students. There was great lighting in the room, no window- which i always find distracting anyway-, and plenty of work space. The teacher Jared Merrel was very friendly and organized. He gave the students plenty of attention and taught using a scaffolding technique. The first section of class was spent in instruction building upon what they had learned yesterday about bridges. He used a power point presentation with interactive images of :compression, tension, bending, shearing, and torsion. He then showed examples of these movements in photographs. The students were allowed to speak out without expressed permission. Mr. Merrel asked the group lots of questions and reviewed what he had taught on previous days and today. after a concise instruction time the children were sent to the computers. Computers were not assigned and no time was wasted micromanaging the classroom. The children got to have individual practice time and use the computer as a mind tool. They designed bridges on the West Point Bridge Designing program released in 2007. Jared told everyone it is a free available program. For the rest of the class period I got to walk around the room and encourage the students. I asked them to tell me what their goals were, I was trying to follow Walter Gongs advise on teaching and learning, by giving the students the opportunity to explain to me how they understood the program and rather than giving them answers I gave them positive reinforcement and asked them questions. I was so happy that it went so well. It was a very encouraging experience to see the kids positive reactions to me and to what they were learning. This was a great classroom to model.
This Tuesday we had the opportunity to teach in small groups and I loved learning about technology from the other students. My favorite part about Tuesday was looking at the Lesson Plan standard online. The teaching objectives gave me a lot of direction. I think it was what Brother Gong would call the central message. It brought order to my teaching and tied everything together. It was the first time I really felt purpose in what I was teaching. My lessons are becoming more than random application with a variety of purposes.