First Class - Great Beginnings

This week I started with my first class! We battled 2-hour delays most of the week, but overall, I think it went pretty well! My first class was Agricultural Leadership and Communications. The class consists of seven seniors. The goals of the week were to meet me, identify and define SMART goals, and complete proficiency applications.

While I think that the classes went well, I find it really hard and awkward to teach a class that small. I feel like if I stand up in front of them and put on my "teacher voice" it is really formal and again, awkward. Mrs. Hoover would put them all at one table a lot and sit with them which I think works well, but feels almost too informal. I think it will take me some time to find a good teaching method for this kind of class.

My first day, I went over my classroom expectations and procedures with the students and tried to get to know them a little bit. They all have some interesting facts they wanted to me and asked me some really good questions as well. I am looking forward to doing this with two more classes next week - however, I need to slow down a little I think. My brain sometimes goes faster than the words coming out of my mouth and I need to keep that in mind.

Mrs. Hoover and I also got a lot done, I worked a lot on my lessons for the next couple of weeks, and observed some classes. (Check out my observation blog!) I was also able to attend an IEP meeting this week and that was a really good experience! While this week left me with a lot of time to observe and prepare, and not a lot to write about, I look forward to picking up more classes over the next few weeks!