A Classroom to Myself

Over the course of this semester, one of the things that I have found most interesting is how much the dynamics of the classroom change whenever my CT leaves the room. Now, I want to preface where I am going with this by saying that I respect my CT very much and I am incredibly grateful for everything that she has done for me over the course of this semester. That being said, I absolutely love the days that she has to be away or step out of the room for one thing or another. It is amazing the amount more relaxed I become when I have the classroom all to myself. I feel like I become less self-conscious of what I am doing, and become more conscious of what the class is doing. This week was one of those weeks.

Due to her involvement in AVID, my CT frequently has to take a day or two every now and again to travel for meetings around the country. This past week she was away for two days: Wednesday and Thursday. The first day I spent with my seniors and the second was spent with the freshman. With my seniors, we are reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  The instruction format that I have taken on for most of my lessons with this book has been very much like that of a college classroom: a bit of reading, a bit of writing and a lot of discussing. This day was largely discussion based. With my CT out of the room, I felt as though this discussion came along incredibly naturally. I wasn’t focusing so hard on what types of questions I needed to ask, I simply asked questions and really spent the hour talking to my students about the book. It was great! They were incredibly responsive, had done their reading and we were able to have a genuine, relaxed discussion about the book.

The next day was spent with the freshman that I have been working with. Now, this is the class that I have been with since pre-student teaching, so we are already fairly comfortable around each other whether my CT is in the room or not, but this day was especially relaxed. The students have started working on their last project for the book that we are reading, so most of the class was spent answering questions about what was expected of them. They are going to be making a soundtrack for the book (I will post the outline and project on the wiki later this week so you all can see more clearly what we are doing), and one of the students had a question regarding an extra credit portion I put on there for creativity. Somehow we got on the topic of something Taylor Swift does in her album and I jokingly professed my love for her body of work. All of the students thought I was dead serious and when I broke it to them that I was not, one of the students lost it so much that she was crying. Possibly my biggest accomplishment of the semester.

Again, this is not a knock on my CT. Being able to receive her feedback on my lessons is incredibly beneficial. Sometimes, though, it’s nice just to have the classroom to myself.