A huge sigh of relief!

Today was the last day I had to teach in front of the TEAM. The TEAM is comprised of five master teachers. My whole class was broken up into five groups of five or six students. For six days we taught lessons (from a six day lesson plan that we wrote) in front of our mock class (the four or five peers in our group) while one of the TEAM teachers evaluates us. Since there are five TEAM teachers and six days each group teaches in front of one TEAM teachers twice (on the first day and the last day--she is supposed to measure our improvement). I was lucky because my group only had five students so we got done a little earlier than most. I was really nervous about teaching American English Grammar because two of the five TC (Teacher Corps) people in my group have taught English before and my degree is journalism not English. I have practically been relearning American English Grammar to make sure that I can teach it properly. All in all I am pleased with my performance over the six days. It was sort of a strange set up because it was like being in high school or junior high all over again, except that I had to be a teacher for one of the five periods. We rotated teaching positions so I taught first, second, fourth-twice, and last-twice. Every day I had a 9th grade Biology I class, a 7th grade Pre-Algebra class, a German I class, and a senior English class. Then somewhere in the mix I would teach a 7th grade Language Arts lesson. It was strange playing a junior high or high school student one minute and then playing a college educated teacher the next. I was very nervous teaching in front of my peers and the TEAM teacher on the first day, but the fear gradually disappeared and today I wasn't nervous at all. However, all of the preparation was very time consuming and every afternoon I came home exhausted. Now that I have settled into a sort of routine and I am not getting worn out by the schedule we are through with this segment of the TC program. That seems to be the way things go this summer--just when I get used to something it is over and it is time for another change. Luckily, I only have one more assignment to turn in and I am not even going to worry about it anymore until tomorrow night. I am going to take a night and enjoy not having anything to work on for tomorrow. Even though I prepared all weekend for this week (so I wouldn't have to do anything on my birthday but enjoy it) my lesson on Monday (my birthday) went worse (not bad but just not as good as the others) than the three lessons before them. This really scared me because I expected that my lessons would always just get better. So I spent the rest of my birthday fine-tuning my last two lessons so that the same thing wouldn't happen again. So I am going to just revel in the moment of having nothing to worry about for one whole night. Tomorrow I have to go meet with the TEAM and learn my overall grade thus far (in their class). But that is tomorrow and tomorrow is another day, for now I will enjoy tonight!