Teaching for the First Time

So like I said in my last blog, Thursday was my first time really teaching a class. The class had been meeting in the computer lab and that just wasn't working for me. There's way to many distractions for them working in there. The Bible Room is right across the hallway and is open during that time so I got permission and moved my class into there. I had a few inquiries about why we were in there now but they didn't really seem to mind the switch.

I began class by giving them the handouts I had made and then I gave them their new journals. They were extremely excited about the journals which surprised me a bit, but it also made my heart happy to see them excited about something having to do with the class. I then gave them the writing assignment. There was NO complaining!!! One of the girls told me that it seemed like a real class now. As they finished their assignment I told them to start reading through the handouts until everyone was done. I had two boys fall asleep at that point and I went over and woke them up and told them to get back to work. Then, I told them I had one more thing for them to do and they could either do it in class or as homework. The promptly asked if they were going to have more homework if they did it in class and when I said no they all opted to do it in class. So, to help me get an idea of assignments THEY would LIKE to do I had them write down three ideas for assignments I could give them or stuff we could do in class. Some of them came up with some really good ideas. And of course you'll always get someone who says something like "Free class time to do whatever we want".

When everyone finished on of the girls asked me how you change a couple things on the camera. I had them all come to the front to see it on the one camera I had there. I explained how it can change from camera to camera and showed them what a few of the things in the viewfinder was. After all that I told them that we were going to be going into the computer lab to try and watch a couple videos. The videos didn't work in the lab so I had them read the information that will be covered in the videos (which I'll show them this week). By the time they were done that there were only about 10-15 minutes left in class and I told them they could check email or do other homework until the bell rang.