The lessons have been taught. The contract has been signed. The website is (almost) complete.
Looking back on my TIP project I am pretty satisfied with the experience. After being in the Ed. School for 3 years I finally got to actually teach a lesson to real live students. It was good for me to start out with a demonstration lesson. I came away from it really excited for the next day, only to realize that giving lectures is not nearly as fun.
I realize that the presentation was probably a little too much for one block. I probably could have drawn in out and only covered one law a day to add more application and practice problems in. We were able to get through everything fine, but 8th graders probably need more repetition to actually commit it to memory.
It was a little discouraging to come back from Thanksgiving break and hear that the students did not do so well on their tests at the end of the unit.
This isn't the first unit the students have had to take a re-test, and the blocks that we did not teach also performed badly so I don't think our lessons or instruction was to blame. I would have liked to have finished out the unit and create the final assessment so that I knew everything was aligned and could really see how the students performed after my lessons, but in the limited window I had and the limited times I was able to visit the school, 2 or 3 times a week is the best I could manage.
For the future I will be more mindful of the age and previous performance of my students. I believe in high expectations, but I also need to try to have the students in their zone of proximal development.
Although it wasn't a smashing success, any experience is good experience in the classroom. The TIP Internship has provided me with a valuable perspective on the role of technology in the classroom and allowed me to explore the different tools and uses I may one day employ in my own classroom.
