As the school year comes to a close, I am wrapping up my year of blogging and guest teaching. I reflect on what I have accomplished this year and what goals I didn't quite reach. Looking back on my first blog post, I was so excited to begin to guest teach. I still believe that it is such a valuable opportunity. And, to clarify, when I was guest teaching I had collaborated beforehand with a teacher and planned to teach the lesson. This is completely different than filling in when a teacher is absent. When I sub in a classroom we may just have a reading day, a work day, a movie day, or open gym. When I guest taught, I met with the teacher before the lesson and we discussed objectives, methods, and outcomes. I practiced and prepared and then taught a full lesson.
Some of my favorite memories of guest teaching were the funny things students said when I was in their class - "feces" rather than "thesis." And when we made slime as a science experiment. And leading the whole band through an entire song successfully! I taught several different classes: PreAlgebra, Math, Literacy, Language Arts, PE, Video Production, Personal Development, American Studies, Global Studies, French, Band, and Special Education. I was able to work in a different capacity with teachers. They were teaching me and letting me in on their world. I worked with students more individually and they were always so excited to have me in their classroom. I learned a lot about what happens in our classrooms each and every day and the struggles and triumphs our teachers face.
I did not make it into everyone's classroom. It was my intention and goal at the beginning to get everywhere, but it didn't happen. I often ran out of time in my schedule or didn't work hard enough to schedule guest teaching into my schedule. There were some teachers who were not interested in having me guest teach. For example, the art teacher did not tell me to stay away, but the couple of times I approached her the students were in the middle of a project and there would be no real teaching happening. Other teachers were very protective of their classrooms and worried about letting go. Honestly, I also chose teachers and classrooms I knew I would be successful with to start and saved the others for last - and then ran out of time. I did not get into Mr. Norton's advanced math classes or Industrial Technology, both of which I was nervous about in my first blog post.
The end of the year came up quickly and I spent a lot of time in classrooms substituting when we were short on classroom subs, but no real guest teaching happened in the month of May. Over the school year I was able to use this blog space to discuss other things I believed in and worked on - PBIS, staff engagement, my one word, shadowing a student. I am proud of my efforts to begin blogging and plan to continue doing it. I am glad I tried guest teaching and am happy with what I did. I would like to continue guest teaching next year and make it to the classes I didn't get to this year, and maybe even some of the ones I did. Reflecting is an important part of professional growth. I am able to see where I was successful and admit where I can improve. I will blog again in the fall with a fresh start to guest teaching and a new school year!
