What a day.

I was observed today - The first time since I started really teaching. It wasn't a formal observation but it still ended up being fairly nerve racking.

First, in my kids class, most things want pretty well. I have a few areas to work on, but the lesson went fairly smoothly and the kids were pretty conducive to learning the lesson (as with all my grade school classes, the students are pretty good).

I taught a low-level grammar class next, and I know I messed some stuff up big-time. Mostly due to nervousness, I think, I put in the wrong cd (a first time for me) and I did part of the lesson wrong. And I know I messed some stuff up like not using student names and probably giving proper praise.

The last observed class was a low level discussion type of class, and again I did a few minor things wrong and I know I didn't use names at all during the lesson (I botched that up at the beginning and just basically said "screw it" from then on). But then I nearly ended the lesson very early - I recovered well enough and finished with a decent ending lesson.

I know I teach better than I did today, and I know from the feedback I've received that they know anything I did seriously wrong today was probably a fluke. I know there are areas to improve and I look forward to some of the feedback I'll get tomorrow but I don't know why I can't perform well when I am being observed. I'll tell you more tomorrow after the meeting (it's a long one, scheduled for just about 2 hours). I had a drink and talked a good bit with one of the other teachers to relax so I should get a good night's rest and I know there isn't too much to really stress about anyway.

Meanwhile, while writing this post I missed my train station. I hope there is another train going back!

Update: I had to take a taxi back to get to my station. Ugh. However the meeting this morning went pretty well. There are some small areas to work on and some aspects to change but it wasn't too brutal. I'm pretty tired today, though!