In Anticipation of Teaching

         At this point in the semester, I am itching to finally get in front of the class and teach, rather than observe from the sidelines. While I have enjoyed being able to play the complacent role of observer rather than classroom leader, and definitely have gained a lot of knowledge just from watching students learn, at the end of the day, I want to teach. There have been so many little things I've picked up on and noted this semester that I am jot down and use in practicum, student teaching, and beyond, and I really want to just try them out on my own and see how it works. While I am confident in my ability to deliver a high-quality lesson, I am also a little bit nervous. In anticipation of becoming a social studies teacher, I've taken mostly American History, economics, and political science courses at RIC, and now have signed on to teach a course that I have virtually no knowledge of, History of Technology. This prospect seems a little worrisome, but after doing hours of observation in that class, I've gained confidence that I can develop two lessons that succeed in both student learning and developing my own identity as a teacher.

          As Nate wrote in his blog earlier this week, the best way to succeed at something is to embrace the discomfort that comes with not being awesome at it immediately. Throughout my experience coaching sports, I've definitely noticed that when some of the kids on my teams can't get through a drill perfectly the first time, they shut down and don't want to build on their first failures to get better the second time. As future teachers, we do need to be able to embrace the discomfort that comes with teaching our first lessons in front of real students and reflect upon that experience afterwards. That is the way to solidify and internalize what went well, and to weed out the things that didn't go so well. Maybe you didn't plan enough material to cover the amount of time in the period, or a question you asked fell flat when you tried to turn it into discussion; these things are going to happen to every teacher, every week. I do hold high expectations for myself in delivering my lessons, but at the same time, I know that they will not be absolutely perfect, and that's okay. I will learn from my discomfort the first time and create a positive experience out of it.