One down, 31 to go

Today was my first official class as a semi-official teacher. I didn't discover any hidden teaching talents, but on the whole I think it went pretty well. Other than the usual institutional chaos (half of my 20 students' schedules showed them having class in a different room with a different teacher; several of those students already purchased the book assigned by that teacher) things went pretty smoothly. Only one person looked close to dozing off, and for an 8:30 class, I thought that was pretty good. There was no blatant insubordination (my number one fear), and quite a few students spoke up and answered questions when I asked them.

One thing I did discover is that an hour and fifteen minutes is a really long time. I'm going to need a lot more material! Today I went in with a rough outline of activities and topics. It was about a page and a half long. I was on the second page by 9:00. Luckily I was able to fill some time with Q and A, but I still let them out about 20 minutes early. From talking to other teachers, that seems typical for the first class, but I don't think I can get away with it every week. I'm the master of the 40-minute guest lecture, but this is a whole other level.

If nothing else, I get to do it again tomorrow. I'm secretly thinking of the Friday afternoon section my do-over class--whatever happens on Thursdays will help me figure out what to do better on Fridays. Although right now I'm not feeling particularly motivated to do anything...

Teaching for an hour today completely wore me out. I don't know how real teachers do it!