Under Pressure

I attend my field placement with three other Miami students, and we carpool to the school from campus. On Wednesday, as we were driving back, “Under Pressure” by Queen came on the radio, and I couldn’t help but realize how fitting that was. It was quintessential, if you will.

About 15 minutes before I left my field placement, my coordinating teacher asked me to teach on Thursday, and despite my utter lack of preparation, I was not about to decline the opportunity to teach.

My coordinating teacher was going to be out of the building at meetings all day, so there would be a substitute teacher in the room, and my coordinating teacher wanted me to be in charge.

Picture I took of The Catcher in the Rye, the book that is
currently being taught during my field placement.

So, before I left, we discussed what the students should gain from the activity I was to create, and I left the building with a “To-Do” list about two notebook pages long, between everything else I had to get done, in addition to everything I had to do so I could teach the next day.

Needless to say, I was stressed. But when “Under Pressure” came on in the car, I couldn’t help but notice that it fit my situation perfectly.
I was stressing to the point where I wasn’t even sure where to begin, and I knew that I just had to dive into my “To-Do” list so I could feel prepared and less stressed.

I had to create a guided reading activity for two chapters out of The Catcher in the Rye, which is a book that sadly I never read in high school, but I’m now having the opportunity to.

While it took me some time, I was able to create a worksheet with ten guided reading questions, and when I came into the building yesterday morning, my coordinating teacher was in the classroom, and wanted to make sure I was all set to teach before leaving the building.

I was happy to see that my coordinating teacher was really impressed with the guided reading questions I came up with. Before leaving, my coordinating teacher asked me to come up with more questions like it for two chapters the students will be reading next week.

As for the teaching portion, that was a success as well. In addition to the guided reading questions, I had to administer a quiz and make sure there were no wandering eyes. While the substitute teacher was in the room the whole time, he sat back and let me teach, without interruption.

Lesson learned: I thrive under pressure.