Three Lessons To Be Learned

This week I taught my second lesson at the high school this time about the Korean War. I didn’t feel as confident on this topic as I had on the previous one. I also was trying to limit myself to only thirty minutes and of course that didn’t work. I went on for about forty minutes or so. I couldn’t think up an activity for the students for this particular topic so unfortunately it was more along the lines of a lecture. I attempted to turn it into a discussion but it's hard when you really don’t know what they’ve already covered. There's a standard from NC about knowing your content that I always pride myself on because this standard for me has never been hard to achieve. But this last lesson hit me at the one area I’m weak in because I only have a simple understanding and knowledge of the Korean War. But the next lesson will be even harder because I’ll be teaching on the culture of the 60’s. Not just an area I don’t have much academic knowledge of but also my least favorite decade in American history. So far I think that there is a lesson to be learned. From my first lesson I need to restrain myself and determine what most important that students understand. From my second lesson I need to know all my content thoroughly. And from my third I need to be able to teach and treat with equal importance my least favorite subject and my favorite subject.