Beginner Teachers Institute - NYSAIS 10/26

Every year NYSAIS (New York State Association of Independent Schools) puts on various conferences that support the professional development of teachers in their association. It is our (the other interns and I) second and last night here in Renssalaerville, NY (http://www.riconferencecenter.com/), a beautiful setting which certainly facilitates learning and inspiration. The conference started yesterday at 4pm and ends tomorrow morning. To sum it up: the first night we all gathered in one room and we were asked to think back to our first 10 minutes of teaching: what were we thinking, how prepared were we, what were the reactions.... then we had to get with a partner who we didn't know and share our different experience. we did the same with a different topic: sharing stories about the worst teacher that we had...the one who just didn't get us. then we turned to the positive route: who inspired us the most...possibly someone who inspired us to be a teacher. what a great idea, but i had such a difficult time remembering. I guess that could a be a good thing - to not have too many memories of bad teachers in my life. but I seriously couldn't think back too far into my educational history. I guess that's because it was so divided from going from private preschool to public elementary (kindergarten-1st) to private elementary/middle school (2nd-8th) to public hs (9th,10th) to boarding high school (11th,12th). I wouldn't trade that experience for anything but I'd say that had a unique affect on my scholastic and moral education.

After that first session we were divided into what are called "home groups". These were groups that included people from all the different types of teaching (lower, middle, upper....language, history, science, math, etc.). In those groups we shared 1. Our lowest low in teaching. 2. Our highest high. 3. Personal goals at this time in our life and 4. Professional goals.

The sharing of the lowest of lows was quite interesting and I must say entertaining too. It was great to be around people with similar experiences to mine. so you want to hear my lowest low? it's actually quite embarrassing as it only involved teaching my Spanish 1 students the numbers 11-100 (how to spell them and say them). easy right? Little did I know that i had absolutely no idea how to explain this simple concept to people who just started learning the language a month ago. not to mention this was the second class I had had with Spanish 1 and was all set to redeem myself after a not so good first class. well, let me tell you my friends, teaching numbers is not as easy as you think. I got up in front of the class and realized that I hadn't thought out the explanation of what 11-30 (ex. 11- once, 23- veintitrés, 30-treinta) and the majority of the numbers after 30 are two words for one number (42- cuarenta y dos)

when preparing this lesson just wasn't thinking like a student new to Spanish or even thinking like a teacher. It didn't occur to me that I should explain why you drop the e and the y and add an i for those one word numbers.... I also didn't think about trying to explain it in English instead of Spanish but instead tried to use words in Spanish (that they don't know yet) to explain what the heck I was doing. ah!!!!!!!!!!!!

Such lack of preparation and thinking led to 1. blank stares from students 2. a ridiculous amount of sweat dripping down my back, oh yes! and sweaty palms, too! 3. Marilyn (my mentor who observes me in this class every day!) giving looks of pain, but definitely not offering any help. 4. me wanting to rip my clothes off and jump out the window but deciding better to just give them a water break, correct the homework and then send them home.
I thought i'd had some bad classes with Spanish 2 but this class topped all the previous lows. I was having an out of body experience where i could see how it was all rolling down hill at a very fast pace....not good.

main point = forgot that teachers must teach, not just talk, they must know the ins and outs of the information that is to be presented. they must anticipate misunderstandings. Although it is wonderful to get to the point in my own personal use of Spanish where I don't have think about the whys with everything that I write or say, I need to remember that I was not at that point in 9th/10th grade and my students are certainly not there either. I am clearly being humbled here and learning to know this beautiful language from a completely fresh perspective.