For me, the first lead teaching experience was like my very first piano recital. I spent so much time preparing with my teacher and I practicing on my own, but it was really my first time on stage. It was just me and the audience; me and the students. Needless to say, I was very nervous going into my first piano recital.
It would have been extremely hard to come out of the first lead teaching experience unchanged. I certainly did not come out of the experience the same person I went in. When I thought about teaching without my lead teacher being in the room I was a little panicked. To be honest, I may have been borderline terrified. It took success in the classroom on my own the first day to decide that being terrified was unnecessary. My lead teacher and site coordinator had well-prepared me for the three days. I had nothing to be terrified of.
I have grown to love these kids in the short time I have spent with them and they know this. My students know that I genuinely care about them and that they are my first priority. I respect them as people and in turn they respect me and what I have to teach them. For me, it was not the content that was the hardest part, although, teaching students fractions is always going to be a tough topic. For me, it was getting past my own nerves and feeling comfortable being on stage.
I can’t say that the nerves are completely gone. For me, the nerves mean that I really care about what I am doing. I will teach again by myself this week and I will still go into this feeling nervous. It took years for me to get rid of the recital jitters but I know there was nothing like the feeling I got when I was playing and let my nerves go.
My lead teaching experience solidified that yes, this is really what I want to do. Yes, I have the potential to be really good at this. Yes, I really am capable of doing what I set out to do, and yes, I can really make a difference in these kids’ lives.
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10/19/2011 : “My first teaching ‘recital’”
It would have been extremely hard to come out of the first lead teaching experience unchanged. I certainly did not come out of the experience the same person I went in. When I thought about teaching without my lead teacher being in the room I was a little panicked. To be honest, I may have been borderline terrified. It took success in the classroom on my own the first day to decide that being terrified was unnecessary. My lead teacher and site coordinator had well-prepared me for the three days. I had nothing to be terrified of.
I have grown to love these kids in the short time I have spent with them and they know this. My students know that I genuinely care about them and that they are my first priority. I respect them as people and in turn they respect me and what I have to teach them. For me, it was not the content that was the hardest part, although, teaching students fractions is always going to be a tough topic. For me, it was getting past my own nerves and feeling comfortable being on stage.
I can’t say that the nerves are completely gone. For me, the nerves mean that I really care about what I am doing. I will teach again by myself this week and I will still go into this feeling nervous. It took years for me to get rid of the recital jitters but I know there was nothing like the feeling I got when I was playing and let my nerves go.
My lead teaching experience solidified that yes, this is really what I want to do. Yes, I have the potential to be really good at this. Yes, I really am capable of doing what I set out to do, and yes, I can really make a difference in these kids’ lives.