Today I taught an entire class period...well, almost. Megan started the period off with some announcements and other items, but then I took over for the rest of the period, which was fun, because we plated a penny in zinc and then heated it to turn it into brass, making it look like gold. We used this demo to work on formulating and testing a hypothesis. Some students had a hard time explaining how the copper penny all of a sudden looked gold.
I strategically opted to teach our last section. I think it went pretty well, but only because I watched Megan teach the same class three times earlier in the day. Watching her makes a huge difference in giving me an idea of how much time to give to each aspect. Megan and I talked about how I could work on my flow throughout the class period - flowing from one topic or task to the next - which will naturally get better with time. I have noticed myself getting more comfortable being in front of the class and I think that helps with having smooth transitions. When I'm nervous, I find myself always rushing to the next thing I want to cover, rather than taking a breath and letting the students have a second to soak up the information.
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