Too Young To Be Grumpy

Well, I made it through my mini teaching session! It only had to be 30 minutes long which was just as well as even preparing that much material is quite stressful when you're not sure what you're doing.

I was really nervous before we left to go to the lesson. I had a final run through with Mr. Factobrunt at home and ended up crying a bit because I was so nervous about it. I'd just had a really stressful day at work which didn't help. I was *thisclose* to just quitting the whole course there and then. Fortunately, I was able to calm myself down again enough to get there.

The actual lesson went ok, I think, although I was so nervous I can't really form any objective opinion! My presentation slides all worked as planned, and everyone joined in practising their Spanish phrases and asked a few questions at the end. The only advantage of being so nervous is that it does seem to speed up time and once I started teaching it all went by very quickly!

Before I started the course, I thought that despite being quite a shy person, I could learn good presentation and teaching skills and with time, overcome my nerves. I would not have said the same later on Wednesday night! Doing the mini teaching session really was tortuous for me, and unfortunately, the way this course is structured, I don't think I will get enough practice to reduce my nerves. That will probably only come if I take the plunge and go for a teaching job... but I still don't feel ready for that without some more practice. I feel stuck in a catch 22 situation at the moment.