Now that I am entering my second month at Triton, I have lots of exciting news to report! The first is that I definitely enjoy being a part of the Triton community; the second is that I have begun to teach my freshmen Macbeth!!!
The Macbeth unit is going very well. We just concluded day three of the unit and my freshmen appear to be enjoying it. I had originally been concerned by the apprehension that my students had regarding Shakespearean English. I heard the same concern repeated in many variations from my students: “The language is so hard; I am afraid that I will be confused and not understand what I read.” Ms. Harvey [my CT] had already taken some steps to help the students feel more comfortable with the language by having them take notes over common words and their meanings; unfortunately, many of the students did not revisit these notes after their initial writing so many of the freshmen horrendously BOMBED the Shakespeare Language test that occurred last week. I think that, for some, it just made their anxiety more tangible. – Thankfully, these fears appear to be dissipating as we get deeper into the text. All of my classes are more than half-way through Act I and they appear to be doing very well at grasping the content. All of my students [with the exception of one] have been reading the text when called upon. No, they do not read every word flawlessly, but they put forth so much effort that they make me smile every day. My students are participating and they are interacting with the text in a positive way!
My only concerns about Macbeth are:
- Reading is taking a bit longer than I had originally planned. Ms. Harvey and I know that we must get through the entire play and the final exam by Spring Break [mid-March] for the sake of the students. It would be cruel to leave them dangling for a week and then expect them to return with the text still fresh in their minds. I have had to adjust my pacing to accommodate the extra time that reading requires. [Please note that part of the problem is that the students are not able to take the play home so I cannot assign extra reading over the weekends.]
- I will not be able to do many activities alongside the reading. The fact that reading is taking so much time [students must literally read ALL of the play during class] has caused me to have to cut out many of the enrichment activities that I had originally planned. There will be days when all students will do is read Macbeth as a class and answer the questions on their study-guides. I want so badly to do more with the students so that they can better apply the text to their own lives, but I only have twelve class periods allotted for this unit [those twelve days must include the reading of the play, act quizzes throughout, a review, and a final exam]. Sometimes you have to sacrifice activities due to time constraints. Thankfully, I have pulled out the most meaningful activities and plan to go forward with those so that my students do not miss out.
As I have been teaching, I have discovered my greatest flaw as an educator: I am a HUGE softie! As a result, discipline is not my strong suit. I immediately address obvious discipline problems [e.g., verbal confrontations, bullying, rude commentary, etc.], but I tend to ignore or not even notice the small, predictable problems [like side-conversations]. It’s a weakness that I really need to work on. Sometimes, I think that I am soft because I do not want to be the bad guy. Students encounter lots of belligerent teachers and I do not want to be like that… However, the more that I teach, the more that I realize that enforcing expectations does NOT make me cruel… If anything, it makes me kind because I care enough to address bad behavior so that students can come to realize what is acceptable and what is not. Turning a blind eye does not do my students a favor; apathy is a cancer to our children because it enables them to continue poor conduct without realizing that their behavior will not be accepted by respectable adult society. Although, I am coming to terms with my need to be firm within the classroom, I would like some advice from my fellow student teachers. What can I do to eliminate side-conversations and outbursts? How can I be firm, fair, and friendly?
