I taught two periods of a literacy class at McLoughlin Middle School this past winter term. I gained valuable insights from the experience and it was rewarding, exciting, and challenging. Throughout the term I became more comfortable with being in front of the students and more confident in my instruction. I learned so much about the work ethic of middle school students, what motivates them, and what kinds of things that they enjoy outside of school.
The experience was very rewarding because I was able to help students succeed in their academic endeavors as well as generate positive relationships with them. I felt very fulfilled when students thanked me for my help or told me that they enjoyed what we had done in class.
The experience was exciting because everyday was different from the last one. Different school related issues would come up everyday and every student had different needs depending on the day, thus there was rarely a dull moment. This made the experience go by extremely quickly in my mind.
The experience was also challenging because it was my first time teaching an eighth grade class so everything was new to me. I had to figure out which activities worked well and which ones didn’t. I also had to figure out how long an assignment or project would take a group of eighth graders to complete. These were things that I learned as a I went, but the biggest challenge was to engage 30 eighth grade students for 50 minutes with activities that were interesting and educational. This challenge is one that I will face throughout the rest of my teaching career.