presentation of lesson plan

Ok so I would like to evaluate myself on how I taught on tuesday. I though I did ok, I am not trying to be hard on myself but I know I could've been better prepared. I wanted it to be a fun activity, but for one the puppets fell apart, yes I should've had better glue but then again the best glue could've been hot glue "you cant let kids use that." I felt I was really time pressured, that kind of had me upset, I actually wanted to read at least two stories discuss the stories, like ask the students some questions, and then do the puppets, then have atleast two students present their puppet and short story. But obviously none of that went through, so I guess that was what through me off a little. In the evaluations, someone did say that I should've discussed the story with the class, they were so right! I also was nervous especially becuase of the cards, how was everyone going to act?, surprisingly not many did anything. The class was so quiet, I thought to myself, why isn't this lesson like everyone else's lesson. It is true missing two classmates can make a difference. Someone had said that because I was so serious, the students took me seriously, so I guess thats why it was so quiet. I don't want to be a serious teacher all the time I would like to be fun too, but I rather the students take me seriously and respect me then not take me seriously and disrespect me. I'd like to thank everyone for their fair evaluations, they would definately help me in the long run.

So I am a part of the America Reads tutors at our school. Basically I go to an assigned Jersey City school and help tutor kids after school, (after care). I really enjoy the kids there, they are the wildest, but I enjoy them all. What I enjoy most is as soon as I enter the building they start jumping on me saying "yay! now you can help me with my homework." What I normally do is help them with their homework and play games or color with them. But today was my first time helping a child study for a spelling test they have tomorrow. Olivia showed me her practice test, unfortunately she didn't do very well she only had one right out of ten. So I asked Olivia if I could help her study, she said yes. So I decided to write the words on a sheet of paper and then have her write them twice each. Then I gave her a little test, I would say the word out loud then she would write them on paper. When she was finished I checked her work and she got all of them wrong! I was so disappointed, so I told her to write them over, and then I would tell her how to write each word. After that another one of her classmates, Ashley, came over and asked if I would test her too, so I tested both at the same time, saying the words out loud and then they would write the words. I checked the girls work and again Olivia got all of them wrong, and she misspells them the same way. Example: Blue-blow, green-gren, pink-pik, orange-orinj, girl-grul, those were some of the words she misspelled. But Ashley did very well, I told her great job she'll do fine tomorrow. I then told Olivia she needed to study really hard, I asked if she knew how to read the words, she did, but then I asked her to read her other homework and she couldn't. I believe she is in 1st or 2nd grade, I wish I could help her with her reading. She obviously has problems memorizing and reading words. I left her practice tests that she did with me in her folder and wrote a note to her mom " please have Olivia study, she is not doing well." I don't know if I was authorized to do that, but I felt I needed to let her mom know! I hope she does study and does well.