Mr. P's Pedagogical Workbench

Walking into my second lesson for my unit over Lord of The Flies (1954), by William Golding, I couldn’t have been more excited. Riding off a pedagogical high of excitement and energy from my last lesson, I expected this one to keep that same momentum. The morning started off great. Students still had my last lesson resonating in their heads as we conferred, and some were ready to jump right into the text— their eyes feasting on the island . However, as I situated the class dynamic for the reading of this novel, a whole-class read, I slowly realized an error in my instruction. Now, sitting by my laptop days later, and having my “teacher of the year” mug glower at me, I realize that I made a boring lesson.             Yeah, that’s right. It was a boring lesson. Essentially, I made all of the students follow along with the help of an audiobook as I had them sit in their small, compartmentalized desks. Going into the class, I figur...

The night is young, and I don’t know where to begin. The stacks of papers and files on my desk, provided by my MT, infiltrate my mind like an army, each soldier stepping on some part of my brain with steel-toed boots. Sitting by my desk, I try to solve the case of what I’m going to do for my first lesson. Being a rookie, and having the baby face to prove it, I’ve never tackled something like this before; I’ve never led my own investigation. Thumbing through my MT’s papers, struggling to make sense of them, I realize I will never get the answers I’m looking for if I keep working my brain into the ground. Standing up from the clutter— my clutter —I grab my trench coat and head for the door. My MT, working hard on her own investigation, asks me where I’m going.             “Need some fresh air, boss. Be back in a few,” I say.             Focused, like always, she waves m...

Before any project can truly begin, you have to look at the blue print . You have to look at the anatomy of what you’re building— fostering —and see if that’s conducive to your purpose. As for the educator, just like the architect or builder, they have to be intentional when it comes to the design and layout of their classroom.             For many years, and even in my earlier education courses, I always thought the classroom construction activity to be arbitrary in relation to effective teaching. However, it wasn’t until I started to take notes in my CT’s (Cooperating Teacher’s) class— which I encourage every prospective educator to do so —that I began to notice something of spatial importance. Just from my observations alone, my CT was able to get to who she needed quick, effectively model ( like Cheryl Urbanski encourages us all to to ), and allow space for fewer distractions in the class. Seeing all of this, and really fe...