For this weeks journal assignment I am going to reflect on my first video tape

performance of myself as an educator during week three of student teaching. I

accidently forgot to write a journal on my first recording session and after reflecting
on the few activities I need to accomplish such as my second videotaping I came to
the realization that I needed to write a post on the first taping and I thought it would
be good to reflect on the positive and negative aspects of my first recording. For
this lesson I was reviewing how to properly fill out their planner and reinforcing a
lesson that I had previously gone over with them. The goal was to re-introduce how
to fill out the planner once a week for at least a month a try and get the kids to be
more accountable for the planner. This was done through the possibility of a reward
such as bowling or a pizza party if the kids conformed to the guidelines set up by
myself or Mrs. N. During the lesson the librarian was nice enough to do the taping
for myself and setup the video on google docs. During the lesson I have a positive
attitude and although a few of the boys are somewhat distracted by the video
recording I believe I managed the environment well. I did this by having one of the
students who typically have trouble sitting still help me throughout a portion of the
lesson. The class time before we started the lesson I had pre-taught my
expectations for him and his peers during the lesson and offered him the option to
help if he followed my directions through the first part of the lesson. I began by
asking the kids questions in regards to what they needed to bring to class in order
to be considered prepared for class and what occurs when they conform. After we
went through that portion of the lesson I had the one young man come up and hold
up a template of the planner. I then had his peers come up to fill out what they did
during their first class and what they were expected to accomplish before next
class. While each kid came up I made them conform to Mrs. N classroom rules
which consisted of raising their hand before speaking. This was another way I
handled the environment well throughout the exercise. The kids interacted well
throughout the exercise and although my assistant made a few faces at the camera
he was very helpful to his peers as they came up and assisted them with following
each of the steps. The one negative aspect I noticed from my teaching was that I
played with a pen in my hand throughout the lesson and this could be a distraction.
I believe this was simply because of my public speaking faults and how I do not like
to be the center of attention. Ive been questioned why I would want to teach and
my answer is Im not speaking in front of a large unknown but instead I am assisting

kids with areas of academics that through research I am confident in my ability to

relay the kids the importance of the subject that I am teaching and mentally I do not
get the same feelings in my mind when teaching as when asked to speak in an
environment that I do not have a lot of control of perceptually. So overall my first
videotaping went well and I handled the environment well and although I played
with a pen in my hand the lesson went well and took the majority of the time. I did
reward the kids with some game time at the end of the lesson and a chance to talk
amongst themselves which the kids seem to enjoy because they do seem to get as
much free time as the general education kids during this time period and instead do
a lesson on social skills or school preparation on most days.