My First Lesson

Today I taught my first lesson in my classroom. It almost feels like it was two separate lessons though. I taught it in two separate chunks. However, I learned a huge truth about myself as a teacher.
The lesson that I was teaching was on answering questions as you read. The students have been working on this, and my CT said it was something I should do the lesson on. The lesson was a read aloud, and as I read, I brought up questions I had, and talked to the kids about how I could answer my questions. Before I taught, I set up my behavior expectations, and told the kids the objective and purpose of the strategy.
As the lesson progressed, I felt like I was not doing a great job of managing the class. There were certain students who were wiggling, or chatting with a neighbor. I kept repeatedly stating that I would wait, or asking students who weren't listening to repeat what someone else had said. I felt like it was going terribly. I also kept getting distracted, and forgetting to put my questions up on the graphic organizer. It just wasn't going that well for me.
About halfway through the book I was reading, I realized we had been on the floor for a half hour, and it was time to move on to the next activity, so I stopped the lesson, and said we would come back to it another day. The students then went to the next activity. At recess, I had the chance to debrief with my CT about the lesson, and she brought up positive reinforcement. She spoke about how she uses that a lot, and how most of my reinforcement was redirecting the kids. She suggested that I use more positive reinforcement, and then had me teach the rest of the lesson when the kids came back from recess.
This next segment of the lesson went so much better. I used a lot more positive reinforcement, and the kids responded wonderfully to it. They were more engaged, and looked at me more. They got excited about the book and the questions I was asking. One kid got so excited that he got in trouble because he rushed over to the shelf to grab another book that would have helped answer a question.
This was nothing compared to how I felt, though. Because I didn't have to do so much policing, reminding the kids of how to show their best listening, telling the students they needed to be looking at me, and correcting their behavior in general, I felt a lot more enthusiastic about teaching. I felt more positive. It was noticeable, too. My voice changed, and I seemed like I was enjoying the book a lot more. I was reading with more expression. I have realized that being so negative all of the time has really been draining me. Realizing that by being positive, I feel more enthusiastic is something that I feel will really help me be a better teacher.
I know that there is a time and place for negative reinforcement. However, my experience today has helped me to see that I can use a lot more positive reinforcement, and get much better results. I think this will really help me as a teacher, and my goal is to work on including even more positive reinforcement as I teach in the future.
Other than that, I feel that the lesson was one that was definitely at the kids' level. It is something that I have seen them working on all week long, and several of the kids, while they might ask questions, are not really doing much to answer them. Therefore, this lesson, which provided practice in answering questions, was appropriate for their level. It was not new material for them, but they still needed to practice it. I have not yet looked at the follow up activity that the students did, but I feel confident that the students are beginning to be successful with this strategy, and my lesson helped to get them there.
I do feel that this lesson met the objective that I had for the students. As I was teaching, the students, particularly in the second half, were helping me to answer the questions that I had, and I frequently asked how we could answer a question, and got answers that showed me that they understood how they could find an answer. Overall, it was a successful lesson.
If I could teach this lesson over again, I would do several things differently. First of all, I think that I would spend a little less time setting up behavior expectations at the beginning. It went on for ten minutes, and the kids were getting bored. I would also use more positive reinforcement from the very beginning of the lesson. I would also be more conscious of when I need to put up my questions. I forgot to do this at several points, and I think it interrupted the lesson flow. Finally, I would change some of my questions to go with the book that the students read afterwards. One group was reading a book that answered a question that I had originally had in the lesson plan, but later took out. I think that if I had focused a little more on what was coming, I could have given the students the opportunity to see how answering questions can really work.
Based on what I have seen today, I would say that the next steps for the students are to get some independent practice using this strategy. They have seen it modeled, and have worked as a group on these strategies. I think that it may be time for them to practice this strategy on their own. Some students may need help, but for the most part, the students know where to look, and just need to start looking there.
Overall, today was a great day, and I learned a lot about myself. In the future, I am going to work more on looking at what is coming next as I plan, getting to know the kids better, and using more positive reinforcement.