I’m nervous. I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. I have zero confidence. I don’t feel at home or comfortable up in front of a group of strangers, especially when I don’t really know what I’m talking about.
I’d feel a lot better with a few margaritas in me. I do pretty good karaoke that way, but I don’t think that’s allowed. 🙁
Tomorrow is my first teaching practice session. I’ve had a few chances to observe already. I’ve been trying to concentrate on learning the techniques the teachers are using to get the information across and manage their classrooms. But they seem very comfortable with it and it’s obvious they know their material very well. I don’t.
Sure, I can speak English. I can read, write and spell it too. But I don’t know how to explain grammar. I don’t know all the rules and details. I struggle to use proper punctuation!
I spent about 4 hours this afternoon working on my lesson plan (for a 1 hour class). I’m still lost. Thank god there is a pretty good book to follow!
I’ll go over my notes again in the morning and try and get through this. After all, it’s not like they’re going to shoot me or anything. I should be happy to have the opportunity to work through my stage fright, right? 🙂
PS- this was supposed to have been posted earlier, I was having so much trouble with the internet I just gave up on it and didn’t get to it again til now. I taught my 1st class this morning. I survived. 🙂
Glad to hear you survived and hopefully it will get easier. Even as a seasoned teacher, the nerves still kick in, especially with new or large classes. A tip I always use if I make a mistake (and I make plenty!) is to turn it into a teaching point. The whole ‘I was testing to see if you noticed’ has got me out of many scrapes! Good luck 🙂
Thanks Haylee, good to hear I’m not the only one who goes through the nervousness. Not so great to hear it never goes away.
I did a little bit better tonight (my 3rd class). It’s really nice having such small classes (only 1-3 students so far). It’s almost like tutoring which I always enjoyed before. The only difference is that now I have to direct the lesson. When I was tutoring the students would just tell me where they were having trouble and we would sort it out.
I tried that today, but spent the whole hour reviewing homework and trying to explain and we didn’t even get started on what was supposed to be todays lesson. So now he’s even further behind. 🙁