E-portfolio-standard B

I just have to ask... is everyone feeling incredibly overwhelmed? I don't know if anyone is reading this, but I am doing way more than what we had planned at the beginning as far as me taking over teaching. They both say jumping into it is the best way to learn how to become a teacher. Cross your fingers...

Sometimes I worry that because I want all of my students to pass my class I will have to slow down for some students, spend extra time with students who are struggling and potentially neglect those students who are really excelling at the project. For instance in my drawing 1 class I have probably 5-7 students who are really working hard and are keeping up with the schedule despite the snow day. Unfortunately I spent too much time today with those students who failed to listen to directions or whose behavior is too often disruptive. I feel badly for those students who are eager to work more and to get started on the next phase of the project. I want to talk to them and understand what they are thinking but the classroom management in that classroom is extremely difficult. My cooperating teacher is constantly negotiating behavior with students throughout the class and she is a tough teacher who can stand her ground. I'm not that loud or capable as a teacher yet. I want to hold all of my students to the same standard, but it is incredibly difficult because some students are simply not in class enough to keep up.

My cooperating teacher says to just fail the student if they can't keep up and to an extent she is right. What bothers me is that no one gives these students a chance and they know it, so they don't try. I've decided to see if they do continue to work like most of them worked today. If they actually show effort I may choose to give them some more credit. I want to start out my student teaching asking all of them to actually put some effort into the projects. I also want them to know I expect them to do their work well. I may be able to control my students with better classroom management. They need to understand that I am in charge now too, and I need to assert my authority. For those students who are excelling I will try to work with them more individually tomorrow and really be cognizant about keeping all students on task in a way that doesn't interfere with discussing other things with students. Some of this may have to be loud, brief verbal commands and some of it may be non-verbal as well. At any rate, I learned from today and tomorrow I will try to be better.