Hands-on activity with sixth graders

This was my the third day of instruction at Driver Middle School. Today, Brock and I had the students fabricate Delta Dart models. Two questions that Brock and I got asked several times were "How do I lay these peices?" and "Am I gluing this right?" One of the things that we could have done differently would have been to model gluing the peices of balsa wood onto the template. It would have been helpful if Brock and I had made a model of the parts laid out on the template and then demonstrated glueing the peices together. This way, the students would have been able to see what we were asking of them and would not have all had the same questions.

One thing that was brought to my attention today was my tendency to use the word "okay." I tend to say this when I am checking to make sure that everyone is still following along and understanding what I am saying. I wait to make sure that there are no major problems before continuing on to the next step. I need to reduce the amount that I use the word "okay" to make sure students are still on the same page as me. I also agreed with this person when they mentioned that I spend a lot of my time teaching with my hands in my pockets. Putting my hands in my pockets is an automatic action for me. I realize that I need to work on this characteristic as it conveys the wrong message not only to people I am conversing with but also to students.

Today's instruction went well, overall. There were things that we could have done differently but that is to be expected. I am glad that I have this opportunity to immerse myself in the teaching environment and still have a multiple assessments of my performance and abilities. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's instruction where students will finish fabricating their Delta Darts and begin preparing them for flight on Monday.