In the beginning of the semester we had to teach a simple lesson. The only difference with this is that it was in "shotgun" method. Meaning we had no time to prepare and our teaching was done on the fly. My lesson was based on "catching". Pretty simple. Not really. Being my first time teaching in this class and with such a simple task of "catching" I felt like I was trying to teach college students how to relearn how to read. I really had no idea where to start and felt uncomfortable in front of the entire class. The lesson only lasted a few minutes and all I could remember was that I had a fairly high activity time for my students. Everybody was engaged in the "catching" and nobody was standing around. I also did not say much. I was pretty much speechless. Now, looking back at my lesson there are a lot of things I would change. First and foremost, I would have acted like I had been there before. If you look, talk, act like you know what you are talking about people are going to listen to you....even if you have know idea what you are talking about. Secondly I would have broken catching down into it different stages. Learning is best done at levels of progressions. The hard part is finding what level each individual is at in order to keep them challenged and motivated to want more. My most recent teaching was done with orienteering. Although I am still learning I feel as though I have come a long way. I feel a hundred times more comfortable in front of the class and I don't have a problem speaking up when somebody misbehaves. I am not perfect now and I do not think my teaching will ever be perfect because I am always learning. I can only do the best I can with what I have.
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