Substitute Teaching

I had the most extraordinary experience today while teaching in a Third grade classroom. I have decided at about half way into teaching a math lesson that there has to me more to life than this. I love math and I really enjoyed it as student. However, I think as a math teacher I sucked. I do not say this lightly nevertheless I made a mistake somewhere along the way and I just hope I haven’t wrecked the students for life about math.  

I want to think that maybe it was because I was substituting and didn't have a lesson plan. Or perhaps it was because the students were out of control. It was a terrible experience for me and the children. The class has a mix of children. It was a good experience and I will learn from it. However, I can only hope that I didn't harm any of the children.

One little boy was so frustrated that he cried. I let him know that there were a lot of students struggling with the concept and that tells me as a teacher I need to reteach it in a way the students could understand. I assured him that I would talk to the teacher and let her know that everyone struggled. I let him know that teachers sometimes make mistakes to and we have to do it again so her students learn correctly.

This experience made me wonder was it really me or was it the dynamics of the class or both. I plan on chatting with the teacher tomorrow about my disastrous lesson. I also plan on discussing the children whom monopolies my time. There were four children who couldn't function at all and kept interrupting.  After some thought, I realize that things didn't go so well because I need to work on my classroom management skills.