The Reality of Exhaustion
Of all the weeks for me to not feel well, this would not have been the one that I chosen. Up until today, my voice has been off and on again, but most of the time at a whisper. Today as I was teaching my lesson, luckily my voice was at its best. I did notice; after the second class I taught left and the third of four classes came filing in; that I was exhausted. I took a quick breath and a big drink of water and proceeded on.
So the issue to me is being able to pace yourself. As with many things in the teaching profession, experience will allow me to master this more. I also think that having to work so hard just to be able to speak, may have had something to do with it, but I think pacing is an important part as well. I want to make sure that the students hearing my lesson the last two hours get as much out of it as the students in the first two hours.
Bathroom Breaks
So what does a teacher do when she needs to go to the bathroom? I found this to be a challenge. I went home that night and asked my daughter what happens in her classroom. She explained to me that her teacher will call in someone to sit with the students while the she goes to use the restroom. I am not sure how that is done when you have a middle level classroom though. There is a short time in between classes, but students are coming in and out of the room at that time. This is something that I will be sure to get the answer to before I start my job, as I am sure the teachers at every school have a system worked out.
Giving Them the Knowledge
Today, I was able to teach a lesson I prepared to the four sixth grade classes that I had spent the week with. We had a lot of fun, asked a lot of questions, and found out a lot. I found that the whole point of it was for the students to think about why they thought the way they did. I had them take a silent vote at the beginning of the class, and then had them take it again at the end of the class. Roughly 2/3 of every class period changed their view. Now that they knew the truth and had some background knowledge on the subject, they actually had an opinion they could stand by.
This is the kind of teaching that I would like to be able to do. I know there is a lot of curriculum that I am asked to do, but I think there can always be a day you can find to do a lesson on a related topic, that the students are able to apply to their lives. This allows the students the ability to take the knowledge you have given them and figure out what that means for them.