Going Swimmingly

Day 3-

I definitely was dictated by hunger today: a hunger to teach, as well as the physical feeling.  I really want to be in the classroom, and so leading an activity that was actually graded was fantastic.  The activity was a get to know you sort of thing.  Yesterday, because of massive language barriers, it was a bit of a case of pulling teeth for my demo teacher to get the students to talk.  Today however, that was not the case.  I didn't mention my expectations that "When I talk, you listen."

Lesson learned: Assume nothing is given, unlike math.

Anyway, there was talking over me and giggling in Spanish and Chinese, two languages that my fluency is rudimentary.  And by that, I mean nearly non-existant.  So I found myself getting a bit frustrated and feeling fairly disrespected and it was just not a great moment.  I didn't know how far I could push being a disciplinarian at this point, because my demo teacher is in charge and I didn't want to cross any lines.  It's difficult to not step on someone's toes in a situation like this.  We're working together really well and I feel really supported (like I hope she does too).  Anyway, the next time I did it, I set up expectations about when I was talking that students need to listen to me, that I'm not just talking out of my ass.

So physical hunger: started swimming again, which was a great idea expect I'm hungry all the time again.  I kind of love that, but it's going to get expensive.