Observed

Holy moly. As I type this, my Intro to Computer students are diligently working on their Excel projects. I on the other hand am breathing a sigh of relief and trying to ignore my sweaty armpits. Why? Because I was "observed" (evaluated) tonight by my division chair! Pretty scary stuff for a brand spanking new instructor who feels as if she she really doesn't know what she's doing and maybe she should have completed her Masters in Education BEFORE attempting to teach instead of "trying it out" first while working on her masters. I know I know, it is common for grad students to teach. Still, I was so freakin' nervous it wasn't even funny.

Turns out...I'm not so bad after all. We met for our "conference" while my students were taking their test AFTER I lectured on Excel for 40 minutes.

Constructive criticism offered by my division chair is as follows:

• I use "um" too much. Be aware of it and work on it.
• I don't probe my students enough at the beginning during the review of what we did last week and a few times a student asked a question and I answered her directly and turned my body away from the other students. In turn, I should have turned re-stated the question and answered so ALL the students could hear.

Umm ;-) that's it. Everything else was very positive.

I was very worried that he would think I refer to my notes too often. When I brought it up, he said "no way, that will come with experience, you are doing a great job".

Anyway...breathing a sigh of relief that I am doing an OK job for my first time.

Yay for me!