I taught my first lesson today! And I’ll continue tomorrow, and the next day, and the next and the next! I was suuuuper nervous! And I’ll give you one guess as to what didn’t happen when we went to hook my computer up to the projector... Yep! ..it.didn’t.work. Thankfully, my supervising teacher brought his, and that I grabbed my USB drive just before I left my desk, because that is when I quickly saved it onto my USB and put it on his computer. By the time I took attendance and finally got my activity on the board, the class was already 15 minutes in!
We talked about classification (the 7 categories created by Carl von Linné; kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) and dichotomous keys. While I was up there, I felt a little scatterbrained, so it was good I had a PowerPoint for the main topics. I'm sure that will go away in time and as I get the hang of it more (for that moment, I am really excited). But I guess it seemed like I was comfortable, because that's what Ken told me afterward. I have a way of making it seem like I’m comfortable & relaxed when I’m in front of people, giving speeches, or teaching. This is sometimes true, as long as I am prepared. His remarks were pretty good; I need to make better eye contact with the students, I think that will come with time as I get to know their names and actually become more comfortable with them (not just seeming like it).
Today I was really really nervous, now I think I'm a bit passed that & I'm feeling really excited to learn first hand about teaching and to get to the point of not being nervous anymore. I’m excited for tomorrow’s class again, it is a double (100min) and we will be doing 2 activities with dichotomous keys: one will be them making their own key with objects I picked out earlier today, and the other will be categorizing themselves as a class into a dichotomous key. I am excited because I’m going to get to learn a lot about my year 10 students, about their similarities and differences, and it will be more of a relaxed day where I don’t have to be nervous. I will start teaching another class tomorrow as well as the year 10 biology.. This one will be year 11 biology & we will be talking about innate & learned behaviors. I think I will have them do an online activity about comparing behaviors of monkeys & humans if we can get net books or into a room with computers.. if not.. eh I'll figure something out.. notes maybe? lol.. I’ll have to put something together tonight.
We ate kangaroo tonight!! I was soo pumped, and it was pretty freaking good! …A lot tougher than chicken or turkey. I've been eating red meat since I've been here.. but everything my host family makes is free range! : )
Somethings I found out today:
- You can’t get apple caramel dip in Australia…
- Peanut butter M&M’s are hard to find…
- Aaand... I’m sure there’s something else, but I can’t think of it right now…
So that’s it.
Cheers,
<3 M
Hey lovey! My first day felt very much the same. Almost every day I felt a little nervous at first, I mean teaching is a huge responsibility and all these kids are just staring at you expectantly, and your co-op is expecting marvelous things from you each day--a lot of pressure. Even though at times I felt like I was going to pieces, people told me they were surprised at how calm I was just like you! Some things you can look forward to: Once you know their names things get a million times easier! Grading papers and seating charts really helps to learn their names. There are def no tea breaks or times to have alcoholic/non-alcoholic beverages in American schools lol they are so uptight here compared to other country's schools! It's like we have to be perfect teaching robots at all times. I think we should be able to wear jeans and have pierced noses! My sister has her nose pierced and when she student taught they told her to take it out but she wouldn't so she went and got a clear nose ring...I think we should revolutionize American schooling when you get back! I will continue to follow your totally fantabulous blog! I'm seeing Australia vicariously through you so keep up the awesome job! (even though when you really get into things idk how you will have the time!)
ReplyDeleteP.S. Can we pleas keep in better touch when you get back :(