impromptu

so today was my third day for student teaching. if i haven't mentioned it earlier, my mentor teacher is great; she's really organized. for the past couple of days, i've just more or less been observing her do her thing, occasionally serving as a kind of drifting teacher to give individual assistance. but today, after the first period i observed, someone called her out of the room; and suddenly, without warning, i had to take over, and complete the lesson! actually, it was not a big deal, because 1) i had an e.a. (educational assistant) who knew the class routines, etc.; and 2) i had already seen my mentor perform the lesson with the first period of the day. so i kinda winged it, and with a little help from the kids (who were really positive!), we got a lot done. we wrote a paragraph on what we as individuals could do to make the world a better place... after the mentor teacher returned, she asked how everything was. i was a bit frazzled, to be honest, but on the whole, i'd enjoyed the experience. so, the third period of the day, i got to teach again. and that was great.

i know i've got a lot to learn. i know that some of my explanations tend to be "over the top." but i believe in these kids, and i also believe in (to a certain extent) my ability to reach them. i hope to be as good and organized as my mentor teacher, but even if i don't attain that level, i feel i could not only "get by," but do a good job teaching (and maybe inspiring) kids...