My classroom is an intimate space. A very
And this, (eureka!) explains why every time someone observes my class, I feel like a dancing flea under under a fresnel lens - tiny, exquisite, improbable. This year, my observer is a kind, wonderful, positive, encouraging soul. His amazingity notwithstanding, I feel a silent, invisible pressure.
And what do I do to combat this pressure? I give in to it.
True story.
My response to this somewhat stressful moment is to buy into the project of observation*. And so, under this stress, I perform (even more self-consciously than usual).
Normally, I work very instinctively while teaching.
I find detailed lesson plans crippling (although I do like to walk into class with a general idea of what I'm going to do, what kind of activities I'm going to have etc.). In the last semester at Big Name Cornfield School, I've learned (whoppee!) that I can actually organize some of the things that I think of as "instinctive" (i.e. because, as my freshman comp students are wont to say, "it just feels right").
I'm a little nervous about how this is actually going to go down. Well, we'll know after Monday, no?
*Okay, I admit, this is my cynical definition of the project of observation.
And this, (eureka!) explains why every time someone observes my class, I feel like a dancing flea under under a fresnel lens - tiny, exquisite, improbable. This year, my observer is a kind, wonderful, positive, encouraging soul. His amazingity notwithstanding, I feel a silent, invisible pressure.
And what do I do to combat this pressure? I give in to it.
True story.
My response to this somewhat stressful moment is to buy into the project of observation*. And so, under this stress, I perform (even more self-consciously than usual).
Normally, I work very instinctively while teaching.
I find detailed lesson plans crippling (although I do like to walk into class with a general idea of what I'm going to do, what kind of activities I'm going to have etc.). In the last semester at Big Name Cornfield School, I've learned (whoppee!) that I can actually organize some of the things that I think of as "instinctive" (i.e. because, as my freshman comp students are wont to say, "it just feels right").
I'm a little nervous about how this is actually going to go down. Well, we'll know after Monday, no?
*Okay, I admit, this is my cynical definition of the project of observation.
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