Monday, October 09, 2006

A juggling act

Well, today is my first official observation by my university placement supervisor. She is a liaison between my cohort leader, cooperating teacher, and such. Hercritique will carries a lot of weight, so today is extremely important. I didn't sleep too good last night because of nerves. I definitely don't feel as though I've mastered the art of teaching yet, but I've come a long way since the start of the school year. My confidence has increased tenfold. I am not as terrifyed of standing in front of the class anymore as my students make it pretty easy on me.

What makes me nervous is that my supervisor changed dates on me. She was originally scheduled to come tomorrow, but changed at the last minute. She wants to see me teach a lesson and today had been a planned workday for the kids to catch up on all their previous assignments and for me to conduct mini-conferences. Well, I threw together a mini-lesson over the weekend for her benefit and decided that I need to stick to my lessons for the most part because otherwise it all gets thrown out of wack. Hopefully, my mini-lesson will be sufficient. We are reviewing similes and checking final drafts of their poems, so it will be a busy time. Still not sure how I'm gonna fit in all the stuff that needs to be included.

I suppose this is all a part of the process of learning how to teach. It feels like I'm in a circus act. You definitely learn to juggle a lot of balls while walking tightrope without a net below, being careful not to drop any of them. It's interesting to observe the veteran teachers as they go about their business. I realize that someday it will all be old hat and become second nature to me, but until that day comes I am a bundle of raw nerves. And as long as I'm still in school and dealing with all the work and pressures that accompany that, I will probably drop a ball here or there.

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