Learning Experience

Friday morning was the first time I had to teach an official lesson.  Lily and I were the first people in our math class to teach a lesson in our classrooms and it was very nerve racking.  I went into it not knowing what to expect; would the kids listen? would they understand? would they have fun? have they learned this before?  It was all so much to process before beginning the lesson!  Our lesson focused on measurement and the kids seemed to love it (thank god!).  Overall the lesson went pretty well and once we got started it was much easier than we had expected.  Through this first experience I feel like I have already learned a lot about teaching.  It was very difficult to co-teach a lesson because we didn't know who should say what and what concepts to expand on.  I think that teaching a lesson by myself would make me more nervous, but it would probably be a little bit easier.  Coming into a classroom that we haven't been in for very long to teach a lesson was hard because we didn't know what the kids had learned in math or anything about their learning styles.  I think that one main thing about being a teacher is really knowing and understanding your students.  If you know your students well then you can adjust your lesson plans to their needs and interests.  If I were to teach another math lesson towards the end of the semester I think it would go much better than it did on Friday.  This, like everything else we see in our schools, is a learning experience and I hope to use this to become a better teacher.