Today I taught third period, which is the first section of our General Chemistry class. It being the first of four, I didn't really know what to expect. How long will the students take on their activity? What do I need to go over? What can I skip? What are the key misconceptions that I'm going to need to correct? I didn't really know any of this since I had never taught the lesson to anyone. Since it was the first attempt, it made me a little tense. Since I was a little tense, it made me a little boring. Ok, very boring. I like chemistry, and even I could tell it was boring as I listened to the words coming out of my mouth. It had to have been bad for the students.
This has been a recurring theme over the last few days that Megan, I and others have been talking about. I'm not a boring person (at least I don't think so), but I become one in front of a class. It seems so artificial to work myself up and get excited about content that I've known for years and that seems intuitive to me. Over the last few days, several other teachers have confirmed my sentiment. 1) Its always hard to know how to teach something the very first time, and 2) many times, it feels like you have to act far more excited than you actually are to draw that excitement out of the students.
One teacher in particular said that she has learned that having excitement and personality in your teaching comes with confidence. The more time you spend teaching, the more confident you become. The more confident, the more relaxed. The more relaxed, the more excitable.
Having personality in my teaching is incredibly important. It makes me relate and connect with students more, It makes the students more interested and engaged, and it makes me enjoy it more. All of this results in students learning more, which is why I'm here in the first place!
No comments:
Post a Comment