23 | 04 | 2012

A geography teacher was off today. I got the amazing opportunity to take both of his lessons! And surprise suprise, which lesson do you think it was - that first settlement lesson for year 8's. The one which I felt really bad about after getting feedback! It seems to be haunting me! I was glad for the opportunity to do it again, not once but twice.

The first class I had a cover teacher with me. She was very involved in her own work, so that made me less nervous. I didn't get any feedback from her after the lesson was complete, so I am not sure if it was good or bad. I felt positive about it and I feel like I am starting to get comfortable being watched by 24 pairs of eyes.

It was an interesting thing, same year group, same lesson, but both were completely different. The first was with a class I have never sat in on, they were not familiar with me and I was not familiar with them. So they were very quiet and we got through a ton of work. At the end when I did my 'closing the gate' they seemed to have learnt something which I was very happy about. When they were packing up I asked of the girls how it was, she said "we usually talk more". Oh goodness! I probably sounded like a foghorn up there. I need to make sure that I am not the one talking and teaching all the time, that they students are learning through doing and contributing. I took that on board for the next class.

The next class I have been sitting in on, so they know me. They were a noisy bunch and me giving them more opportunity to talk was probably not the best idea. Being it was the end of the day, last lesson for them I found like I was competing with them. I made the mistake of handing out a cut-and-glue-in-your-books resource BEFORE giving the instructions! Silly Silly Silly. I wont be doing that again, because trying to get their attention was really difficult.

I also noticed that wow, I am SO loud. My voice is loud. And I think that just make them louder. I found that if I just stopped and was silent, it worked better.