Thursday's class

Before I begin, I realize posting same day would be more beneficial and I will try to be more consistent, however, it has been one crazy busy weekend.

I will set up a bit of context here. The school I am placed at is in a rural/suburban area. The students are either very rich or poor. There is no city aspect, there is one strip down Main street. The community use to be all farming and lately has catered to the people who want to get even farther from Lansing to build large elaborate homes. I walk into the building using the side door that my MT uses so that I can save five minutes of going all the way around through the front door. The minimum security allows me to do this. I have yet to ever see a security guard or a menacing teenager for that matter. The school is definitely not over-crowded. We have plenty of space for more students in my MT's classroom. Each graduating class consists of around less then 200-150 students. My graduating class was probably triple that. You rarely see any students of another ethnicity than white, to be honest I have yet to see a black or hispanic student. The school system itself is wonderful. I have met many amazing teachers, graduates from Michigan State as well at this high school. I actually have friends at MSU who graduated from this high school I am describing. So the students have the option to go to college and are encouraged to do so.

What happened in the classroom?
I arrive at school the exact same time as my MT does so we walk in together. She explains to me that she has to teach a war she is not entirely up to date on for second hour history and would like me to go over what the text book has to say during first hour and then let her know. So I review the text book all during first hour economics while listing to her teach at the same time. I really enjoy observing my mentor teacher teach. She has all these amazing stories to tell because she had once owned a business of her own before she came to teach at this high school. The bell rings, freshmen start to trickle in for second hour history. I gave my notes on the text book to my MT and then something scary and incredible happened; she asked me to teach it. I had a 2 minute warning! Alright, I can do this, as I talked myself into it. The lesson wasnt anything unique or special, we just went over a bunch of facts as the students took notes. They had a time period where they had to read something for themselves and they were allowed to take a break. All in all the lesson went well, it may have been boring, but I suppose every lesson cant be amazing especially with a 2 minute warning. Some students asked a lot of questions that started to get off topic. They wanted to know more about communism and why it was so bad if the basic ideals of communism seem okay. As a teacher this would be a great teaching moment, or perhaps a time to realize I need to teach the students about communism before the Cold War.
What my MT specifically taught me that day?
"Dont be afraid to just jump in!" That's what she told me as she sprung the teaching on me. It was a good wake up call though, to always be prepared and not expect everything to go perfect. Lessons dont have to be amazing works of art that are just brilliant and belong in one of those social studies magazines. Sometimes they are just to teach the students the facts and then perhaps you can go back and reiterate the subject in a different way. My MT believes students should hear something six times before they really know and learn it. I suppose I was number one for them this particular day.
What does this all mean as a future teacher in this classroom?
I realized how unprepared I was to teach the lesson that day. I gave the students basic content from their book and I spent very little time preparing. The lesson still went okay, so I realized I dont have to plan every lesson for hours and have it brilliant. However, I also realized that I would like to spend more time on my lessons and really understand why I am teaching this lesson the way that I am and for what reasons. I dont like teaching without having some sort of rationale, even if I have not wrote my rationale out, I would like to have thought about it prior to teaching that particular lesson. Its important for me as a future teacher to understand why I am teaching the way that I am and why that lesson, why should these students care? And what do I want them to learn from this lesson? When I think about these things it helps me build a more solid lesson for that day, so I include these things.