WIth A Little Help From My Friends

Ok so I'm sorry I've been neglecting the blog but really teaching and lesson planning is taking over my life. To be honest I sit in a classroom all day, scribbling madly on sheets of paper, trying to predict what my students may or may not understand, for 7 hours I do this and for what? For a 50 minute class. But friends, that 50 minute class, feels like the world. Watching the students smile as they understand and really, truly want to learn is an unbelievable feeling. While I know these aren't really my students and I'm not really responsible for their learning, I still feel some sense of accomplishment when they leave the classroom and I hear them saying "that was one of the most fun classes I've ever had," and while their sentences may not be grammatically correct or even make sense, I get the gist and thats all that matters.

I always thought that lesson planning was somethign that would be easy, you simply decide what you are going to say, write it down and then teach it. This however, is not the case, you spend hours agonizing over what the students will enjoy, what will help them the most and what will make the most difference in their lives. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I could make it through this whole lesson planning thing. Everyone has their own unique talent, for example, Deb is amazing at coming up with activities, Amanda is great with topics for conversation and Hebah is great with creative questions. This is a group effort, while we may be alone in the classroom, behind the scenes each lesson plan takes a group of teachers to complete it.

Now that my time here is wrapping up, I'm beginning to think that perhaps I am cut out to be a teacher. Yesterday after my class when I was getting feedback from my observer, she asked me if I had ever been a professional teacher, naturally I laughed in her face. I'm nervous, not confident, I stutter and forget the students' names and yet somehow I'm doing something right.

I have 3 days left and I'm wishing every minute would pass slower than it is. I'm dreading the moments when I will have to say goodbye to both my students and my friends.

Enough for now, time to lesson plan.

Meggie