Friday, March 16, 2007

Teacher Watching

I love watching other people teach. Especially students who are still trying to figure it out. They'll do anything. Not-yet teachers are often way less inhibited. Seasoned teachers are great too. They have wisdom of experience backing them up. You can see it in how they interact with the students and hold their audience. I love watching other people teach.

Today is a perfect day for teacher-watching. I'm back with the MWP, teaching my own lesson at a youth writing conference. The morning was filled with getting up and running, learning 25 new names (thank God for nametags), keeping it interesting, and getting them writing. The afternoon is for break-out sessions. There are 10 different mini-sessions happening twice in a two hour time period. Theoretically, this is 10 different opportunities for teacher-watching. Realistically, I can't sit in on just 10 minutes of a lesson. In fact, I've spent the entire first session in just one place. But the teacher watching is fascinating. I'd almost rather stay than go back to my own teaching this afternoon.

In other news, never get bronchitis. It's miserable. I fell ill last Thursday evening, and I'm still feeling it. The medicine is causing detached head moments, my voice is unrecognizable, and when I cough I can literally feel my lungs shaking. I'm slowly making it back to the land of the living, but it's not a fast process. So there's my advice for now: never get bronchitis; just say no.