Saturday, September 30, 2006

On Monday September 25, 2006, I taught my first math lesson. It was somewhat terrifying. Math, I thought, they want ME to teach math. Math makes me cry... But I did it...and then I did it again the next day, and the next, and the next for the whole week. A good teacher checks for students understanding regularly and often and all of my checks have shown that my students ARE learning! Pat on the back.

Teaching is hard. All of those minds are in my hands. All of those eyes are looking at me. All of those children are EXPECTING me to help them come to new understandings about the world...Intimidating?? Hell yes! But every day it gets a little easier. On Thursday, I taught a little girl how to tell the time, on Friday I spoke Spanish to a little boy who barely understands English and his face lit up when he was finally able to understand the instructions given to him, and complete the task at hand. A little boy wrote on his weekly note that his favorite part of the week had been learning about arrays. His favorite part of the week was when I was teaching...! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.