Modesty is overrated

(I'm student teaching in two places and taking four academic classes this semester which is why you haven't seen me 'round these parts much.)

Today I taught my first real honest-to-god class using my own home-cooked lesson plans. I had everything going against me: This was the first class of 20+ I'd ever formally conducted. My cooperating teacher was absent and replaced by a knuckle-headed substitute teacher. There was a fire drill in the middle of my instruction and I was never taught the school's fire drill protocol. It was the day before the school's vacation and most of kids had already shut off their brains for the week. I was being observed and graded by one of my notoriously strict professors.

And I nailed it.

The plans were flawless, if I do say so myself. The kids were engaged and focused, even some of the difficult ones. The substitute looked at me with an expression that is only used when you see someone half your age perform better than you ever will. I became someone else, it was almost other-wordly. I was an Adult who was in complete control rather than a lonely twenty-something who spent the night before sitting in her '90 Geo Metro named LuLu feeling sorry for herself.

Later, my professor expressed surprise that the lesson ran so smoothly even though I had never led a class before. Strangely enough, I think the class went so well precisely because I have no formal training. I've spent more time in a classroom as a student than as a teacher. I know exactly what makes a teacher boring versus stimulating. I still have a student's perspective and retain the ability to laugh when a child calls me a "playa hater." And I'm not trying to be no Michelle Pfeiffer either.