Today was my first full 90-minute instruction period. In second period on Monday, Wednesday and Friday there is a video bulletin put on by the advanced media class. It's actually very sophisticated and quite cool, but it means that after the bell rings I can't start my class immediately because they are waiting for the bulletin. Mme B thinks I might try playing music to eliminate the gap time, or I could put up a review activity on the board, a new verb to conjugate, that sort of thing to fill in the lag time.
At any rate, I collected the homework, passed out what felt like a zillion papers and walked and talked the students through each. The main goal of today was to get them in project groups and then demonstrate a presentation that they will each have to give on various review topics. I copied as closely as possible what Mme B had done in her first period, using the same transparencies, examples, etc.
At the end of the period she said I had done quite well, teaching 90 minutes is long isn't it? Oh, and don't ever translate what I've said into English, except in exceptional circumstances. If I speak in English, fine, but don't translate otherwise they students will learn that they can ignore the French and wait for my translation. Excellent point.
On the whole, I feel pretty good about today. It wasn't spectacular, but I feel like I held my own, like I was able to keep up the level of instruction, and that the students learned and stayed on task for the most part.
The good news is the next two days will be pretty "cool" as Mme B says. We'll finish our demonstration tomorrow and then it'll just be helping the groups with their project the next day and a half. A bit of a breather after a day of instruction. It's like weight training for teaching...or something.
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