1st Week

My first week is finally over. It seemed like a very long week. I'm not sure if it was getting up earlier (5:40am), getting home at 6:030pm every night after practice, or running with the kids during practice. I have a feeling that it is probably a combination of all three.

The biggest thing for me this past week was actually starting to teach some periods. I spoke with my cooperating teachers about mostly observing the first week and easing into teaching. I had watched the first section of Computer Business Applications and helped out a student with the same assignment in the Computer Skills class the next hour. So after lunch, I was supposed to observe CBA again. I don't know why, but I turned to my cooperating teacher and asked her if I could teach the lesson. She said sure and I was off and running. It went very well; so well in fact that my cooperating teacher left the room for a little while. Instead of that concerning me, it actually gave me confidence. It was validated once the period was over and she told me nice job.

My low point came during my 8th hour Intro to Business class the second day. I already had taught Intro 3rd hour and didn't realize I was speeding through the lesson during 8th hour. So I got to the end of the lesson really early. I had 10 minuted left and didn't know what else to do. It was not enough time to launch into what we had planned for the next day, and I had just finished going around the room and having the class introduce themselves to me. My cooperating teacher and I were unsure of what to do, so we just let them talk for the rest of the period. I really hated to do that because I don't want to send the message to my students that if they don't talk during the lesson and we get finished early that they can just blow off the rest of the period. But I fear that that is exactly what happened. So we will see how the semester pans out with that class.