Spoken Like a True Teacher - 05/04/19

AEMS only has school from Monday to Friday, so when Trish asked me what my plan was for the weekend, I told her I'd be spending the day planning for my 5 gymnastics classes and 3 Mandarin classes next week. She responded with "spoken like a true teacher" which made me feel a certain way. A good certain way though.

When you teach 4 group gymnastics classes of all different levels, on top of a private one, planning becomes of a little tedious. Because all of them are indeed at different levels, there are certain parts that can overlap with slight adjustment, and other parts need to be changed completely. Trying to think of different things for 5 different classes is the challenge. I spent much of today doing research for different gymnastics stations, warm-up games, and all that jazz. Most of the plans look pretty similar, with slight changes to make stations or drills easier or harder. In the attached photo is an example of one of my group 4 classes. 

The 3 Mandarin classes that I teach are also very scattered in level. My Tuesday group has been learning for several months, my Friday morning group has only had one lesson, and my Friday afternoon group has had 4 or 5. Doing plans for scattered Mandarin levels is slightly easier than gymnastics, because I can reuse plans that I used for other groups when they were at that level. I feel a constant pressure to "one-up" myself every week. As strange as that sounds, I have always been that way. I research profusely and push my brain to come up with different crafts every week that the kids will find cool and enjoy, while also learning something. The pressure comes from always wanting the craft for the week to be as cool or COOLER than the craft from last week. It is surprisingly hard to find crafts online. I have been working on planning to make dumplings with both my Tuesday and Friday Mandarin groups next weekend though, which I am extremely excited about. Some of the parents have been getting excited too. That will be next Saturday's plan! 

I also spent a big chunk of the day writing my end of the week blog. 

Time: 6:06

Hours: 4

Total Hours: 45