English Teacher Shop Girl*

Well, I survived!! Today was my very first day teaching high school and it went really well!! But that’s getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back a bit…

I am currently completing one of my practicums and am on placement for 3 weeks. I’ve spent the last week observing classes in a local high school and it has been great. My associate teacher thinks outside the box and doesn’t want to create a “mini-me” version of himself and has let me observe a variety of classes with other teachers—which is pretty unusual for this placement.

So, I’ve been taking notes and making all kinds of lovely doodles in my little observation binder (mostly to distract myself from the fact that I was to start teaching today). Last week flew by. Seriously. I don’t even know where it went. If you find it, let me know. haha! And before I knew it it was Friday afternoon and I was reviewing my lesson plans with my associate teacher and preparing to teach… today.

I spent the weekend attempting to be as utterly prepared as possible. I knew the best way to calm my nerves was to have everything planned out and to have contingency plans for my contingency places in case something didn’t work out. By last night I had everything in order buttt I still had a mini-freak out. haha! My poor Hubs… he has to put up with all my crap and he is so good about it. He just holds me and tells me that I’ll be great.

When I woke up this morning I was so nervous I couldn’t even finish my yogurt (so I switched to Rice Krispie Squares which worked much better to calm my nerves. haha!!). I went through my plans over and over in my head so that I’d have everything memorized and organized. After a big hug from the Hubster I was out the door and on my way.

I taught second period today (grade 10 applied English) and sitting through first period was nothing short of agony. However, when the bell rang I somehow managed to appear calm and get my things together and start the class. And then the funniest thing happened… the moment I started teaching, all my nerves absolutely disappeared. Gone. I have never felt so at home during a “presentation”. I forgot where I was and what I was doing and just completely engaged in it. The time flew by! The class was over before I knew it.

I was pretty nervous to receive my evaluation from my associate teacher as I think he expected me to have some major screw up as most teachers do their first time out. Instead he walked up to me with a huge smile on his face and told me that my lesson was terrific and that he was really really impressed. He was absolutely incredulous that I hadn’t ever had experience teaching a full class before which made me feel reeeeeeally good. YAY!

I’m much more excited for tomorrow… I’ll let you know how it goes!!!!

Shop Girl*