Teaching the Full Class

On Monday, I presented a lesson plan on Lord of the Flies to my high school teacher and he asked if I would be comfortable doing it on Wednesday. I said sure and he stated that I could try to take the whole block and teach everything if I wanted. Nervously, I again replied with sure. Come Wednesday, I am shaken like a freight train over a tight bridge. Yet, I am prepared. I go in and find out that there's a sub.

Dejected, the sub asks me to make copies and puts on the movie Cast Away. When I return, she goes, "oh, are you supposed to teach today?" I brighten up as the kids go to lunch and prepare to set myself up to teach the remainder of the block and the entire next block.

The kids return and are upset that their movie has been replaced with what some of them saw as busy work. Teaching them when they just wanted to finish the film was about the most difficult thing I've ever experienced. Shame on the sub for making me seem like the bad guy. So, the class muddled through the lesson and, even though they did show signs that they enjoyed it, they were more anxious to watch the film.

The next class was handled a lot better. The kids took a quiz left by their teacher and then we did my lesson. It went a lot smoother than the previous class and the only problem that arose was the noise level (it was a group work project with discussion). Other than that, everything went off without a hitch. The lesson, which really can take up to 45 minutes, if there is a lot of conversation, took almost 52. The last 30 minutes were left to the great acting of Tom Hanks.

For the second class, I was much more relaxed and assured of myself and my lesson. It became very comforting standing in front of a class and running the whole thing. I loved it. Any worries I used to have about teaching have dwindled down to nearly nothing thanks to that day and the teacher I work with. It ended up being a very good day.