My 1st English Class

Today was the 1st day of our two week teaching practicum and it went very, very well. Katrina, Zack and I are sharing a class so we divide up the 3 hour class between the 3 of us. So we each teach for 1 hour a day, everyday. But, because today was the 1st day, we sort of did a group teaching thing where we each sort of took ownership of different activities in class and allowed the students to get to know each of us.
I think that the class is a really great group of girls; we were supposed to have 16 but 11 showed up and they are all very nice young ladies. The lowest English ability is probably around an Intermediate-Beginner level and the highest level is Advanced-Intermediate level. So the girls who have better skills were really pushing the lower level students and really helping get them using new words and new grammar. It was really cool to see them helping each other and it was only the first day!
As far as my teaching went, I really think that teaching is like riding a bike. I was worried at first that I’d be a little rusty and not really do that great of a job but as soon as class started I was able to slip right back into the “Ms. Payne” role and it was actually really nice to back at the front of the classroom. Katrina and Zack did great jobs as well, especially Katrina because she has never had any teaching experience and she really did a great job of both leading the class and managing them when they got off task.
So anyways, it was a really great morning and it just helped to build my confidence and it reminded me how much I love kids and teaching. It’s not that I thought I was a bad teacher, I just thought that I was mediocre simply because I haven’t been doing it for that long, but it was really awesome how during our lunch break today, like 5 people came up to me and told me that my teaching partners had told them that I was an awesome teacher and that I did a great job. That was an awesome feeling and I’m really flattered that people think I’m good at my job. But anyways, I just wanted to let you know how my 1st day of practicum went. I’ll try and post again soon with another update on my class. Oh, and my class is 11 girls who are going into the 11th grade next year. Ok, I’ve got to go to Romanian language class now. Peace and love!