Thankful to great teachers

This week has been a bit stressful. On Monday night I found out I would be teaching the Science Activities class at our co-op. My friend Kathy had a new grandson to see and wouldn't be able to make it. The good news was that we have been sort of teaching together although I must admit Kathy has been doing a huge chunk of the work with me sort of helping out a bit. This meant I knew what the class entailed and sort of what was planned for the upcoming class. Kathy sent me the list of activities that we were going to do and I went with it. It didn't dawn on me how much work Kathy was doing on her own until I was expected to do just such work. Okay I wasn't expected to but she had laid the groundwork for the class and I wanted to uphold that. I went through the list of things I would need and ended up with about 20 things that I needed to bring. I got really stressed at how I would pull this off.

So most of the week I spent worrying. I don't like being unorganized, it only stresses me out and makes me all weird. Unfortunatly I grew up with an unorganized mom whom I learned many bad habits from because I didn't know any other way. I have since worked on that and am finding more and more that I do like organization quite a bit. Anyway I knew I needed help in the classroom because I noticed if I put the kids in charge of a experiment/station then they didn't get to do the other experiments/stations. On the flip side of that the kids for the most part enjoyed being helpers and that in itself is beneficial.

I asked parents for volunteers to help with the stations but I was late in the game so I didn't get many mom's to volunteer. I did get one mom who was willing to take one station off my hands and she got her friend to do another one. This meant I still needed to get the kids to help out.

I put Colin in charge of flubber/silly putty station which was really two experiments in one but we had done this at home so he wanted that one. Austin got one with oil and water and food coloring that we had done the day before at home. It turned out neat and he knew what to do. Conner wanted to do a Krampf experiment that was more of a trick on how you can fit through an index card. I was in charge of looking at bubbles, and the other moms where in charge of slick sliding soap and fun with gas. So it was chemistry class.

At first it was a bit chaotic. I made the fatal mistake of assuming since this was the 3rd class the kids knew the drill and would wait while we got ready. It took quite a bit longer than I had intended and the kids got bored and played and got loud. We soon got a few of the stations set up and the rest came to follow quickly. Halfway through class the kids were engaged and we got an additional helper. At the end of class I felt it went well if not a bit crazy. The mom's helped clean up and we talked about how we would work out the kinks and get the class just running smoothly in time for the semester to be over. LOL.

I am constantly vigilant for learning opportunities for my children but also for myself. In this way I lead by example and my brain doesn't rot away from never being stretched any further than where it is at that particular moment. On this day I learned so very much. If unprepared you stress out alot. If prepared you don't stress nearly as much but on your first time doing something there is a nervousness involved. I think alot of my stress came from my feelings of inadequacy. I thought the class wouldn't go as well as it had with Kathy in charge. She is a great lady and so great with children. I am good with my children and with their friends but with 22 kids in the class I felt a bit overwhelmed at making the class work efficiently, having the kids learn something all the while having a great time during a one hour session. I learned about alot of things that day, mostly about how little I know or how very much I don't know. I'm okay with that because I feel I have reached that point where you really stop acting like you know about everything and start trying to find the answers to your questions. I have been there for some time. I feel more comfortable in the classroom setting in our co-op . Which is fantastic as I would like to teach a class perhaps next semester.

There is a new appreciation for teachers in general and of course of our co-op. These great mom's must prepare their class well in order for it to run smoothly. In that I hope to learn from these women about what makes a great class and how to best prepare for it. Of course nothing is foolproof is it? I will always expect surprises along the way to learn from for future reference. In the meantime I will attempt to lend a better helping hand to our great teacher Kathy for future classes by taking more of the workload.
We had a relativly laid back week the rest of the time. We did our schoolwork and our housework. A new week begins shortly with new possiblities. What was your week like?

Vanessa