First lesson....

...My god, how stressful!!
Enjoyable, in it's own way, but stressful.
The maths starter was okayish, but the kids messed around a bit and, although my mentor had told me to be tough on the because they're that kind of class, I still didn't want to keep stopping and starting to tell off a couple of kids, so I kind of ploughed on. We were out in the playground counting up in fives by flashing the fingers on our hands, and a couple of boys were messing around. On reflection I should have stopped, refused to carry on until they calmed down, given out warnings and moved one of them next to me or the teacher. Stopping too often, I guess, made me feel like it wasn't going well, so I didn't, but I really needed to.
If I don't get bahviour under control, the lessons will never get learnt.
I started doing a thing where I clap out a tune and then they have to copy. It sort of worked, shut them up and got their attention, but needs some practice.
The PSHE lesson - nealr a whole hour, went surprisingly well for a first lesson, and barely thought through, if I'm honest!
About the only real problems were the general noise level - although work was being done, and I forgot the plenary completely! Apart from that it was okay.
I was so stressed and knackered that I spent the night feeling tearful and dwelling on the bad bits, but then had a chat to my mentor about it the next day and she said that background noise level was really a matter of preference, so something to work on but not too much to worry about, and that generally she was pleased.
She reminded me to do positive correction - table ticks for the quietest table, and stars for good workers, as well as shushing them and saying they are working too loudly.
Felt much more confident on friday, but am generally tired out by now. It's hard work, even when you're just observing and working with groups!
Teaching my first literacy lesson tomorrow and have spent all evening planning and peeing around with worksheets and IWB things, sorting out WALTs and WILFs and stuff.
Looking forward to that lesson.
Doing all maths starters next week, and covering, or helping to cover, lessons on friday.
Very much in the deep end, everything is out of my comfort zone, so very stressful, but learning quickly!
Enjoying it so far. Occasionally wondering if I can keep it up, or if I want to keep working this hard, but no where near close to quitting yet. I'll just be glad to get a few more lessons under my belt and hopefully get the crowd under control!