Reflect on your work in your PDS this semester. How have you benefitted from the mentoring relationship you have with your mentor teacher? What actions have you taken to be sure that the mentoring relationship is beneficial to you both? When commenting on your partner's posting, reflect on your prompt and your partner's prompt, then discuss what you plan to do next semester to ensure that this mentoring relationship is successful.
This semester as a participant at North Marion High School has been an incredible learning experience. My mentor teacher is a third year teaching of 10th and 11th grade Language Arts and he also teaches Journalism for one class period. Fortunately, I have been able to work a bit with the journalism students and it has really been great. My host teacher has a background in folklore and he is also a musician so it has been interesting to see him incorporate this into his teaching.
I plan and teach a lesson on my own once a week. I usually ask my host teacher what the students are working on that week and guide my lessons from there. I rarely sit back and observe the classroom. On the days that I do not plan my own lesson, I typically co-teach for three class periods. We have a lot of class discussion and the students seem to enjoy having two teachers to interact with. My host teacher and I also share many of the same (though not all) beliefs about education. I have learned a great deal this semester about myself as a teacher and my students. I am completely comfortable in front of the classroom and I am confident in my teaching abilities.
