Yesterday with three seconds to go, I was thrown the alley oop...okay okay that's a little dramatic. But just a few minutes before the data analysis class that I observe was set to start, the professor wasn't feeling well and asked me to teach.
I was excited and nervous. I hadn't read the chapter or seen her slides for the PowerPoint presentation. As the students filed in the room, I skimmed through the section on Bivariate tests and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient and it was show time.
I breathed a sigh of relief that this was material I was familiar with. I thought on my feet about how to engage the class and get through this two hour lesson. And then I just went to work.
I started off with examples and then made my way through the first 15 slides. No hiccups. I was able to answer the questions they had and keep us moving. At the midpoint, I definitely noticed the wandering eyes of students who were perusing laptops doing work for other courses and getting a little distracted. So we took a break and then got back to it.
By 12, I had finished my first impromptu lesson and felt pretty good about it. The students gave good feedback and everyone seemed to understand the premise of what we were doing and how we could apply it to everyday social work practice.
I really liked it. I can definitely see myself teaching Stats and other courses, and more importantly being good at it. Next semester I'll have my shot at doing this for a full semester. It should be interesting! This was a good taste of what's to come.
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