I had my first opportunity to teach my new Primary class yesterday.
Before I tell you how it went let me just add a little back story.
I don't relate well to little kids. I never have. Even when I was a little kid. I spent a lot of time with adults, and I LIKED it. A lot.
So this 'relating to children' thing is a bit of a mystery to me. Turns out, it's a pretty helpful skill to have when you need to get 10 kids to sit down and listen to you for an hour.
The other thing is-surprise, surprise-we have a sick baby at our house so I was 'functioning' on very little sleep.
With those things in mind, here is how the day started.
I stumbled out of bed at about 8:15 (we have 9:00 Church) when Alyssa woke everyone up with her screaming. Something about running into the wall and hitting her head.
I vaguely remember getting Liam out of the crib and taking the girls downstairs to try and find something to eat. There was a lot of crying and a lot of yelling.
"Put our waffles on one big white plate so we can share!"
"DADADADADADA"
"You didn't put butter on them!"
"MAMAMAMAMA"
"MOM, Lyssa dropped a piece of her waffle on the FLOOR."
ETC.
Meanwhile, I was trying to get breakfast for myself, review my lesson again, and pull together every one's clothes.
Yes, this is the kind of organization you would see in our house most Sunday mornings. And yes, I am ashamed.
I made it to Church with the girls about 10 minutes late (Matt stayed home with Liam). I had planned on going over the lesson a time or two more during Sacrament Meeting, but I got interested in the talks and forgot. (That and a little boy sitting behind us threw up halfway through. Yikes.)
As soon as Sacrament Meeting was over, the panic set in. (Why do I get more nervous teaching 10 Five-year-olds than I do teaching a room of adult women?)
I went to Sharing Time. We were so busy trying to keep the kids' shoes on, ties on, backsides in chairs and eyes focused that it was over in a heartbeat.
Oh the fear! (And five-year-olds sense fear.)
My mind went blank.
I was sweating.
And then...
IT WAS OVER.
I only vaguely remember teaching the lesson. I told a couple stories, asked some questions, sang a song (poorly) and we colored. At least I think that's what happened. It's kind of a blur at this point. (I'm adding blurring memories to my list of blessings.)
I do remember that the Sister who teaches the class with me is amazing. She kept both me and the kids on track.
This whole Primary thing will definitely be one of my trials this year. (I'm sure one of many...) But for the first time, and kind of in spite of myself, I'm actually excited to be in this class. I'm not completely sure why (probably just because I'm masochistic like that) but I'm just going to go with it.
p.s. Pedophobia - Fear of children
p.p.s. I will post pictures as soon as I find the cable to my camera. Apparently, the card reader in my OLD computer will not read the new SD card I got for the camera.
p.p.p.s. Have I mentioned that I really (really) like parenthesis? (Like REALLY.)
5 comments:
Oh, what fun! You will do great with those cute five-year olds--more than anything they just want to know that you love and care about them.
Go you!! I substituted in Olivia's sunbeam class yesterday, ummm yeah I am not a little kid person. I can handle my own kids but other kids make me squimish. Good thing I am pregnant so I can get out of it for awhile. But again go you, I am sure you are a great teacher, those kids are very lucky!
For the record, Rachel said that class was "fine". That's as much as we ever get out of her, so that means that everything WAS fine. It takes some time to get into your groove - I'd suggest checking out www.sugardoodle.net for time filler ideas. We got to where we always had a coloring page, then we had a couple of little memory games we made from clip art on the web that we kept stashed for emergencies, days when there was an extra 10 minutes at the end. Oh, and I also read them stories from simplified Book of Mormon and Bible readers to kill time. I swear, the class time in Junior Primary is twice as long as it needs to be :P. I'm delighted that you and Wendy are Rachel's teachers, and I hope she doesn't drive you nuts!
I missed seeing a barfing kid...exciting! Guess I was too focused on what I was doing.
Oh to be a fly on the wall of that classroom.... I am sure you did just fine.
I feel your pain. I teach the 4/5 year olds. Last year, Zach was in my class. Think whining, haning all over me, and sitting in the hall for much of the time... Glad he got new teachers for the new year. And I got the coveted good little class in primary. Easiest bunch of kids I've seen in a long time. Though we did just get a little refugee girl from Africa who only speaks Swahili. Should be interesting...
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