And the Oscar goes to....not me.

I was definitely dreading this blog.  I remember the day I taught the lesson I recorded.  At the end of the period I walked back to my computer, stopped the recording , and thought to myself, “I really don’t want to watch that later.”  Anyway, I just finished the video, and I survived.  I survived watching myself, and I survived the lesson that I taught.  It’s definitely a weird feeling to watch yourself teach and view it from a perspective other than just your eyes.  The lesson I recorded was my phrases and clauses lesson where I tried to be as enthusiastic about the topic as I could, hoping that some of my enthusiasm would transfer to my students.  It seemed to work to some extent.  I wish the video could have captured the entire classroom and the microphone would have picked up the noises of the classroom better.  As I was watching, I began to write what became a long list of comments on how I was doing.  I wrote down the good and the bad.  For example, I noticed that in the beginning of the lesson, I pace back in forth in front of the classroom.  It’s a clear mark of my nervousness.  I always going into the lesson somewhat nervous.  Sometimes it goes away during the bellringer and sometimes it sticks around until the students begin working on their own.  I’m not quite sure what the secret is to make it go away early on, but having a well planned lesson always helps.  My phrases and clauses lesson was well planned (I think) so by the notes, I feel like my nerves stopped being so obvious.  I was a little iffy between my set and the notes.  I passed out all the worksheets myself which I now know is just a bad idea (at least for our class).  I always have a student do it now.  I also erased the board myself which I usually don’t do.  Why do that stuff when the students are there to do it for you?  One thing I noticed I do way more than I thought I did was raise my own hand when I want them too.  It’s like a nice visual reminder that I want to see hands and not mouths.  At the same time I throw my hands up in the air more than I thought.  That might be specific to this lesson, but I’m going to keep that in mind for future lessons.  I move my hands more than I think I should.  It’s sort of distracting, but maybe it’s part of my nervousness shining through.  This blog assignment was not the most fun.  As I said before, watching yourself teach is not fun.  I found my gut tensing up, especially at certain parts I remember going badly.  Its like watching a scary movie the second time around and you know something’s about to happen but you don’t know exactly when.  But whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  And tomorrow is the 4th of July...which is awesome. 

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