Ohio Fried Chicken

I've been teaching for two days now. How do I sum up my experience? Well...

Or especially in the case of today...

I graduated from college with a degree in marketing and entrepreneurship with a minor in psychology (but hey, who's counting). I grew up wanting to be a teacher. For Christmas one year, I got an easel with a chalkboard on one side and a whiteboard on the other. Every day after school I would go to my basement and play class, acting as the teacher. It was my favorite thing to do.

*Disclaimer: this was in like 3rd grade. I wasn't doing this in high school.

And then I grew up. I'm not sure what made me decide to change paths. But now I'm able to see if that passion I had with my easel is still alive today.

So, on to my first days of actually teaching real life people.

I was extremely overwhelmed. I wasn't sure what I needed to teach them, how developed their English was, or what they already learned. So I played a game getting to know them while telling them a little bit about me. During this game, it was revealed that I am from Ohio. From the moment they knew that, they kept saying Ohio Fried Chicken. Did they mean Kentucky Fried Chicken? Was it another inside joke between the students? Was it a fat joke? I was just as curious as you are.

My next two classes were equally stressful. I had my game planned and I felt ready to begin. But the students wouldn't be quite. I asked them once. I asked them twice. I threatened to give them homework (yeah right like I had any homework prepared to give them). They kept talking! It's difficult to keep a balance of discipline, respecting their culture and being the cool teacher. Luckily, my RBF came in handy when I would stare at groups of students that were talking.

Don't know what a RBF is? Google it.

Finally, when I came back from my third class, another teacher had put a listening activity on my desk to conduct with my final class of the day. In other words, I had to hand out papers and press play on the sound files. I was so thankful for this. It would give me time to relax and recoup orate after my other classes.

However, when I began pressing play and handing out the worksheets I realized that I didn't enjoy it. I was only there to work sound. I could also tell that the students did not enjoy it at all. While it was nice to relax, I didn't feel like I was their teacher.

Yes it's only Tuesday. But I already feel more confident in my abilities to lesson plan and teach to a class. I know that I will learn things along the way, but that only means I will improve.

In the end, I think I'm going to like it here after all.