This week we had a practice Teacher-on-call day.  I was surprised at how nervous I actually was.  It was difficult going into a class with virtually no knowledge of what the day would look like and what I was supposed to do.  I think what made me most nervous was functioning within a different school’s schedule and community.  Dealing with students is one thing, but looking like a fool because you do not have a clue about when anything is happening is a lot more difficult.  The day actually went very well.  There was an assembly in the morning that made things a little tough because I did not know where to go, but the students were great.  Following the assembly, I took the opportunity to continue the topic it raised, diversity, and talk about it.  I think it helped me build rapport with the students and develop a clear atmosphere of how I wanted the class to work.  PE class was also difficult to begin with.  There were three classes all with TOC’s for the day and so we had to figure out who was teaching whom.  I was really impressed with how my fellow teacher candidate had worked with his class to set up self-regulation within the PE class.  Finally, I also realized that in order to TOC you really need to be prepared for an entire day on your own.  If a teacher has not left the best plans or if technology does not work, I need to be prepared to last the day.

The rest of my week was pretty crazy.  I had to teach Wednesday, Thursday was a strike day, and the teach Friday.  It made it difficult to keep the students focus, but we all made it through.