Oh no!

Today I had probably one of my most disastrous lessons while teaching math analysis. Not because I was unprepared, not because it was Monday (although I tried to blame it on that), but just because of what was going on at the time. Well the lesson started off okay, but I had prepared myself for material that was extremely difficult: teaching the students about the Angle Sum and Difference Trig Identities and the Double Angle Trig Identities. The first disaster was a student asked me why something worked. I knew it, but at that moment, my brain just stopped thinking. "Uh oh...how do I explain this??" But as I took a step back I realized a different way of looking at the problem and I was able to explain it to the student.

 Another problem came up about a typo on the reference sheet that was given to students. This was not as bad since I simply corrected it and told everyone to immediately change it on their copy. The worst part of the period was the fact that I had lost track of time. I told the students to work through a difficult identity and right when I decided to go over it, the bell rang. The students had to continue to struggle with that problem until we could discuss it tomorrow.

 Okay, so maybe I am being a bit dramatic, but it is hard to have so many mistakes in one period when you are a new teacher. I am glad that I took on the challenges head on and I didn't want the students to see how much of an issue it was for me. I learned to keep cool in that type of situation and focus on the students learning rather than my small mistakes. I think the class did end up to be a success since there is always time tomorrow to continue with the explanation. Anyone else have any disastrous lessons? Please feel free to share!