This week's adventure...

Wednesday I had my observation by my field instructor.  I wasn't too nervous because I felt confident and prepared.  I did learn two things from this experience that: a. if something is going to go wrong, it will happen when you are being observed and b. when something goes wrong, don't stress, just be flexible and adapt.

Tina and I had scheduled our lessons back to back with a 15 minute recess in between.  We were full of nervous energy as we waited for the field instructor to arrive to observe the lessons starting at 8:45.  We thought for sure she would be early, but as the minute hand crept past the :30, to the :40, to the :50, we were beginning to get anxious.  At 9:00 our MT called down to the office to make sure that the field instructor wasn't lost in the school.  We confirmed she wasn't and also learned that many parents were commenting on how horrendous the traffic was.  She finally arrived at 9:10 after being stuck in traffic for an hour and a half, poor thing.

Tina's lesson went really well, the children went to recess, and my lesson started at 10:15.  My lesson was on money, and the whole introduction and modeling was to be done with the document camera so that the kids could all see what I was doing.  Lo and behold, the document camera refused to work.  I adapted by having the kids sit on the carpet and walked around showing them the coins. 

Just as I started to show them the quarter, the announcement came, "This is a lockdown drill...please follow lockdown procedures."  We hurriedly shut the blinds, turned off the lights, locked the door and remained huddled silently for an excruciating 20 minutes.  For any of you who've worked with 1st and 2nd graders, you know that this is no small feat.

The rest of the lesson went smoothly, but had to end prematurely as we had lost the 20 minutes, plus 5 minutes for the teacher to debrief and reassure the kids.  All in all, a success with a few glitches that we had to roll with.

Thursday arrived with the pressure off and eagerness to teach more lessons.  The teacher assigned us the dreadful task of teaching a drawing lesson.  While not dreadful to most, especially Tina who is a very good drawer, I am a kindergarten-level-stick-person-drawer at best.  I was to go first and teach them to draw a 3D stool.  Luckily I had a step-by-step drawing book to assist me. 

My part of the lesson was less about drawing and more about being brave and taking risks.  I explained to the class how apprehensive I was about drawing because I felt like I was not good at it.  I talked about how everyone has different talents, but with practice can get better at something they try hard at.  I told them how I was going to be brave and draw for them, and that's what I did.  I was rewarded for putting myself out there by two simple words: "That's awesome!"  The fact that they were coming from the child in class that has the most trouble focusing and people have a hard time working with was especially touching.  I felt like a million bucks!