Week 11 Reflection

This week I had a tough situation to deal with. Wednsesday Mr. Taylor and I prepared a microscope lab for the students. The lab consisted of students looking at onion cells and identifying the different stages of mitosis. I was very excited and I thought the students would be too. It got even better when Mr. Taylor showed me that he had a video microscope so we could project the image on to a television.

The first couple of classes went really well but 7th period was when things got a little rough. Mr. Taylor was called down for an IEP meeting which neither of us knew about until just before the class. That meant that Mrs. Mitchell and he would both be out of the class and I would have two subs. This class is already a handful, even when the two of them are there and without them its worse. It would be one thing if I was just giving them notes or seat work but that day was a lab and they were using expensive equipment.

Students kept asking me to come and look at their microscopes and help them find what they needed. Due to the fact that I was the only one in the room with the content knowledge I had to be the one to help. While my eyes were on the microscope I could not watch the class. I figured the subs would try to keep things under control but that did not happen. At the end of the class I walked back to find that someone had turned on the video microscope and at first I thought it was broken. Luckily, when Mr. Taylor returned he was able to fix the problem.

I really tried my best with that class but I think it is just one of those classes that needs a couple of people watching so it was hard for me to do alone.