Almost there : )

I'm about half way through my observation hours and I've realized it is very important to learn as much as you can about specific strategies for teaching your particular subject matter. "In addition to knowing general teaching strategies, it is also helpful to develop strategies specific to the topic you are teaching (or the game in my case) - strategies are collectively known as pedagogical content knowledge" (Ormrod, 14). You can tell an effective teacher by how flexible they are in their approach to their instruction. Realizing half way through a lesson that you have too many rules for a game - to be able to adapt and change the game to fit the students is important. Kill or adapt the game before it kills you and makes you totally crazy trying to explain it over and over again. This will help the students get a better understanding of the material. Another important thing is to know names! It's hard to keep your class in order if you can't call the specific names that need to be reprimanded, or that need to be congratulated.