New teacher

A few weeks back I had an interesting experience. It was made even more interesting by how a friend (planning on going to TT) and I looked at it so differently. Saturday 10am class we get a visiting instructor teaching her second class. She has 2 new people in class. Right off the bat she makes a big omission in the dialogue (a little short of starting with “inhale” without saying what to do). This left her completely unfazed; she corrected the students and went on. She made several other mistakes, but never wavered in her conviction. She went on like a trooper. In the meantime I’m in class thinking “I’m going to SUCK!!! OMG, I am so going to suck!” The realization that sucking at first was as inevitable as not being able to fly was pretty strong. After class though I pondered this. So I will suck. All new teachers will make mistakes, and will need to grow into their teaching chops. However she taught me a valuable lesson. It did not kill her. She did not have to curl up on the ground and die from mortified overexposure. She prevailed! Heather was in the same class and was delighted with the experience. Her take on it was that it was good for her to know that others had and would make mistakes and that made it all okay because it was perfectly normal. She's right. I hope to overcome my suckyness quickly so that I can help my students have the best possible class they can have ASAP.