Electrical Fail (week 9)

I have another very short teaching week consisting of only two days! It is week 9 and I still have so much to learn. This week in particular I had a super rough lesson in electricity. I thought I had it all planned out the way it would work. Well… it ended up going very bad. Here is what happened.

•  Monday and Tuesday were spent at the State Legislative Leadership Conference. A substitute teacher was in charge of our class those two days. I left my lesson plans in their hands… and nothing got done. I learned that no matter what you have prepared and how well it is prepared, it is up to the substitute teacher to instruct the students to get the work done.

•  Wednesday was my first day back. The students finished up their projects and are beginning to work in teams to wire mock bathrooms. They are to work in two groups to estimate the amount of wire needed to complete the bathroom. They were to take string and run it the way they would run the wire to calculate the correct amount of footage. I was afraid to cut the string too short, so I just had one group working and the other one sitting. (here is where my lesson starts to turn for the worse) The students in the non-working group just sat there and didn’t get any educational value from the other group working. Tomorrow, I am going to have the students try it again. This time, I am going to split the ball of string for both groups to work.

 

Although the week is not over yet, I had a learning moment within the first day. Tomorrow is a new day with a new start. Time to get back on my feet and try again!

Until next time,

Ms. Yoest