My first classes

I taught my first two honest-to-god paid classes this weekend.

Last night, taught a class of teenagers for three hours. The lesson is pretty clearly laid-out in the teacher's book, but I still spent hours preparing anyway. It was not nearly as difficult as I thought. The other teachers at VUS have been so helpful in explaining where to find resources, games, and how to arrange a lesson. I was warned that teenagers are a more difficult group but I was very lucky-- I got an insanely loud class. I was worried that I would get a very shy, very disconnected group and I would have to force them to talk. With this class, it's actually hard to actually get them to shut up and sit down. I can't blame them. Their desks are really uncomfortable and I'm just some dumb new person who doesn't know how to pace a class. I'll be better off next time. It didn't help that I did not have my "share" folder yet, so I couldn't sprinkle in videos or audio clips.

I stupidly tried to relate to the teenagers by asking if they play Pokemon Go. Apparently this is not cool to them, because that is for "kids." The boys like super violent games and mentioned that they like killing prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto 5. Inappropriate. Also inappropriate, a few times one of them said "what the fuck?!" and then the whole class would chant "TEACH-UH! TEACH-UH so-and-so said FUCK!" I still have to figure out how/if I want to deal with this. They clearly know that it is a bad word and they should not be saying it in class, but I have no real power to punish them for saying it. Drawing attention to it seems like it will only make it worse. I've been putting on "earmuffs" and giving them my best angry mom face.

This afternoon, I taught 6 to 10 year olds for 2 hours. I had only ever observed a class of under 4 year olds and a class of 6 year olds. I had no idea how to deal with these guys. Thank god for my amazing teaching assistant. They were very energetic and willing to participate, but unfortunately knew all of the material for my entire lesson. I think I learned more in that lesson than they did, mostly that I need to develop an arsenal of educational games to play and probably keep a book of hidden-pictures in my bag in case I need to fill up time. I think I will get better at this in time. I am very willing to look stupid and sing loudly, which seems to be an asset for teaching kids.

Overall, though, I am loving this. It is going to be really fun. I left my teenage class buzzing with energy. I'm sure it will wear off (judging from the other teachers) but for now I am ready to dive into this.