I had two coaches for this session. Feedback was that I’m starting to break the pattern and there was a significant improvement over last week!
My coach congratulated me and said that he was proud of me. That made me feel good in the sense that my hard work has been paying off :). I don’t do this stuff so that I’ll get kudos but it never hurts :).
We talked about a lot of things but I don’t want to confuse myself so I’m just going to write about what I need to work on this week:
– When entering the room don’t say anything just walk to the podium and start the class
– Have everything setup *before* students arrive (towel on podium, room ready heaters and whatnot)
– Cut out extra dialogue no additional dialogue or any other bullshit other than the right side dialogue.
– Go over the dialogue
– Continue to work on saying the words in the CLEAR and CONCISE manner.
The whole idea behind this approach is to trim the fat and just stick to the basics which is the dialouge and saying it clearly. Nothing else…I’ll be able to add stuff later but right now its just the basics. I have no problem with that as it takes so much pressure off me to try and be funny, say bikramisms, tell stories, whatever. It isn’t like that stuff is pressure but it distracts me from my primary focus which is to be clear and concise.
Personally I feel like I made some big improvements this week. Most importantly I can see how my coaches insistence that I needed to work harder was exactly what I needed to actually get better as a teacher. It’s really amazing how much we can learn and grow just by listening to people who know more than we do. It isn’t easy but when I’m honest, open-minded, and willing a lot of stuff happens and change actually occurs.