Teaching and stuff!
This week I faced one of my biggest fears! I taught one weeks worth of Biology! How crazy it was. It went way better then expected. I had dreaded this since it was in my head that I actually had to do it.
Public speaking, responsibility for students learning about a very important topic, are all things I was unsure of. I did freeze, I was nervous, and all in all it went very good. My confidence grew enormously from class to class. I know most of you who are on my FB, read about my freaking out. Some of my friends gave me some suggestions. Both good and bad. The one that was the least helpful was the age old, "picture them in their underwear." I thought for one second on that, and realized how bad of an idea that was. Starting with the reason that there were mostly 18 year old girls. That could just be bad for a number of reasons. I don't think I need to go into them.
As my confidence grew, so did my understanding of how this goes. I wasn't the only one who was nervous. These students, are facing a test, and in any given area of study. I also realized that this was the hardest topic in the Biology curriculum. There were so many things being taught, that they were more concerned with keeping up instead of my nervousness, and my how I taught the material. I successfully answered all the questions that were given. In the end I left with confidence that my students understood the material that was taught.
Each class was 2 days, of teaching. The first day consisted of strictly lecture. What I thought would take 2+ hours to teach took me 45 minutes day one, and 55 minutes day two. Way shorter then I had anticipated. I did have activities for day 2 of the lecture periods for both classes. Consisting of questions from the book, and some work sheets I had found on the internet, that could be similar to test questions. Going through these questions, gave me the confidence that they understood what was going on.
The professor was also happy with my performance. I left the week able to breath, and maybe refocus for my A&P class now! All in all a great week that left me blessed!
Public speaking, responsibility for students learning about a very important topic, are all things I was unsure of. I did freeze, I was nervous, and all in all it went very good. My confidence grew enormously from class to class. I know most of you who are on my FB, read about my freaking out. Some of my friends gave me some suggestions. Both good and bad. The one that was the least helpful was the age old, "picture them in their underwear." I thought for one second on that, and realized how bad of an idea that was. Starting with the reason that there were mostly 18 year old girls. That could just be bad for a number of reasons. I don't think I need to go into them.
As my confidence grew, so did my understanding of how this goes. I wasn't the only one who was nervous. These students, are facing a test, and in any given area of study. I also realized that this was the hardest topic in the Biology curriculum. There were so many things being taught, that they were more concerned with keeping up instead of my nervousness, and my how I taught the material. I successfully answered all the questions that were given. In the end I left with confidence that my students understood the material that was taught.
Each class was 2 days, of teaching. The first day consisted of strictly lecture. What I thought would take 2+ hours to teach took me 45 minutes day one, and 55 minutes day two. Way shorter then I had anticipated. I did have activities for day 2 of the lecture periods for both classes. Consisting of questions from the book, and some work sheets I had found on the internet, that could be similar to test questions. Going through these questions, gave me the confidence that they understood what was going on.
The professor was also happy with my performance. I left the week able to breath, and maybe refocus for my A&P class now! All in all a great week that left me blessed!