Teaching…
Just finishing up my first trimester of my second year and what a difference a year makes. Right now, I consider myself an adequate teacher where last year at this time I was just a blubbering idiot. In other words, I think I have drastically improved. Im teaching 10th and 8th grade biology this year and I have 7 turmas (classes) of around 50 to 55 students per. I still am encountering similar problems with rampant cheating, lack of effort, and lack of support from the school director, but that’s all out of my control. I’ve been more consistent in engaging my students and keeping their attention, one of the major keys to teaching. Also, I think I have been better at simplifying complicated subjects. Also I realize that I cant assume students have heard about a certain topic or word and I will explain everything to avoid gaps in the subjects. This is all stuff that you just pick up with experience, which is making my second year much much easier than my first year. In tenth grade were going over DNA, Chromosomes, Mitosis and Meiosis, and students are getting really into the subjects. Students will always ask huge genetics questions that are way off topic but thought provoking like, “why do parents who are tall sometimes have children who are short?” or “how can two people of one race have children that are of a different race?”. I really enjoy trying to answer them, because it’s a chance for me to explain on the fly genetics topics in Portuguese and also because the students are genuinely very interested in them. Here are some pictures of me teaching one of my 10th grade classes that Nia took for me. The lesson was about Meiosis.