Teacher in Training

I taught my second class today, and it went GREAT! Which is surprising, given that only 1 person showed up. Yes, one lonely student. But it ended up being a wonderful class, and a nice little ego boost for me, which I desperately needed.

Today's class was advanced level, and I'd prepared a course dealing with euphemisms. I brought in a text to read and had about 10 euphemisms picked out that I wanted to teach. Luckily, the lone student, Alejandro, found the subject matter really interesting, and didn't already know most of it. His personal favorite was "pushing up daisies," which was great because I was worried that talking about things like death would be too depressing, but we ended up making it fun.

The class was particularly good because it had a natural flow to it. Although I had several exercises and discussion topics prepared, we didn't stick exactly to the plan and ended up discussing several other things instead. It ended up being even better that way, because Alejandro learned what he wanted to learn, and it still remained in the framework of the planned theme of the class. As class neared a close, I felt like I'd done a pretty good job...

...which was completely validated when, as I wrapped things up, Alejandro asked me, "Did you just start teaching?" And I told him yes, that I just taught my first class yesterday. And he said to me, "You are an excellent teacher, a natural. I learned a lot today, thank you very much!"

Big smiles!! As a new teacher, what more could I possibly ask for? I feel so much more confident now, and am reading to take it easy this weekend and have a few celebratory cervezas tonight. :-)