90 grades x 3 essays/REVEL assignments. How am I going to catch up? I want to be an awesome instructor but I'm sorry, my assignments are a bit more important at the moment. Balancing my work life and school life is becoming a little tough, I just hope that I can figure all this shit out before midterms when my students start freaking out. On top of it all my babysitting arrangements have changed so that's cool AND I'm officially moving to Denton on Monday. Yay! It's cool and all, except for when you start thinking about packing, organizing, and the gas that going back & forth multiple times will take. All of this PLUS completing assignments and lesson planning/grading. Can I just hibernate? Like, for real?
I might just die. 😟 Anyway, that was my little rant.
How is teaching going? I feel pretty good about my students, most of them are getting things done, completing their assignments, and asking questions. I love that they care.
So, my 3rd class of the day started off as my favorite, and they are the ones that almost always have a 90% completion on assignments. How is it that they are becoming my least favorites? I don't know when it happened but at some point, they started becoming disconnected.
Due to this change, my public speaking anxiety has increased (in this class only), my other classes are awesome. Seriously, wtf happened?
Their disconnect has made me become really nervous every time I teach them, I literally cannot wait to get out of there. There are good days, don't get me wrong, but what the hell man?? They're seriously gonna make me fail them all. LOL JK. Some of them are actually perfect angels.
So, how can I turn these anxieties around? I looked back to the Dannels text and thought to myself, this needs to change ASAP. What tools can I use to work on my teaching methods for this section? I've acknowledge & analyzed my concerns and I am ready to commit to changing this awkward and uncomfortable environment (I might be reading a little too much into this).
Dannels mentioned following a process:
-I promise I will acknowledge my teaching questions & concerns.
-I will be open to interrogate how & where my anxieties originate from.
-I will become eager to consider options for addressing my teaching questions/concerns.
AND I will force myself to be ready to imagine new possibilities on who I am as a teacher & what I want for my classroom.
As the text says,
I need to "dig beyond the surface" so that I can find the root of my problem. I got this! I WILL figure it out.
This class WILL turn back around and become one of my favorites again, or at least be on the same level as the other two. I have faith in them.
-Mari <3
I'm so jealous! I won't be able to move until next fall. Anyways, it is interesting how your students aren't connecting with you alike they once did. If I can make a suggestion, one thing you should try doing is have small conversation before beginning class. Ask them how their day is doing or talk about things that are happening (current events) and if they are not responding then share something interesting that happen to you or something that will tie in with the material that you are covering that day. This can help on reducing your anxiety as you are speaking to your students and getting some sort of comfort.
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