Thursday, February 3, 2011

Taught my first lesson - No work at all!

     So today I taught my first lesson! Things got kind of crazy beforehand though. I have a supervisor that is supposed to come in and watch me teach lessons from time to time. I had been e-mailing him beforehand but little did I know his replys were going to my junk mail soooo when I called him just before I left for school this morning and was told he'd be coming in less than two hours from the time at which we spoke, I was naturally surprised. Well, seen as how I had no lesson ready to show him, I was kind of freaking out. I'm pretty good at keeping a level head though so I just went with it (although he ended up coming in a few hours later, which was good.) Anyways, during the lunch period beforehand I prepared a math lesson. My supervisor showed up before the students got back and actually gave me some more ideas too. Then the actual teacher leaves the room because there's some really important meeting she has to go to and I'm there all alone (with my supervisor watching that is.) Ok, no sweat. I got this—ok ok I was nervous—but I settled them down, I got their attention, and then they just jumped in! Oh and what a surprise, even though it was a math lesson about addition and subtraction in the thousands, the students were engaged and yelling out answers (followers of my blog might remember that the teacher has reached some level of exasperation at the "unresponsiveness" of the class.) This is just a small confirmation to me that students will be better learners if you treat them with respect and not yell at them too excessively. Hmm, some deep thoughts about punishment here, but I'll save those for the next unexpected day off.
     Speaking of, the teacher informed the class today the due to so many of these unexpected days off,  we'd be losing some days from February break. Oh, if only you could see the forlorn look on those students' faces. The teacher said, "Face it, you don't need a February break." Which was instantly met with head shakes and frowns all around the room. The teacher reacted to this with surprise, citing how many unplanned days off they've had already! It was at this point I realized that I had the same look on my face as the students and was also reflexively shaking my head. Not that I don't enjoy being there or anything, I just love, y'know, lounging about and etc. Hmm, in the future, I hope I can figure out strategies to make this feel like a fun thing to do everyday instead of "actual work." "Actual work" is boring and monotonous. I really enjoyed teaching my lesson today, that was fun and engaging. I suppose when I'm calling the shots (i.e. actual job in my own classroom) and not just taking notes or making copies half the day, then this slight feeling of "actual work" will dissipate. In any case, I will do my best to control my inner self to not associate teaching with the idea of "actual work." I'll come back to these thoughts another time too.

8 comments:

  1. Oh gosh, losing time from February break sucks! I'd have the exact same look on my face as the students did, too!

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  2. o-o that is scary, i need breakkk

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  3. Glad you did alright! Wouldn't have expected anything less, though ;D

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  4. I bet it was nerve racking stuff!

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  5. glad you had a good day man, too bad you don't get a break though! keep us updated

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  6. I bet those kids were really dissapointed. They want they break back.

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