Froze

I was supposed to do some teaching with the Media BTEC year 2. They had to pitch their magazine to the rest of the class and they had to cover.
> Adverts:

1x car double spread
1x cosmetic
1x perfume/game
2x films
> DVD re-release
> A film festival flyer

They were asked by my mentor to do this on A3 paper like a poster, which gave them creative control. I had planned the lesson; I created a lesson plan, which gave me a rough idea of how I thought the lesson might go. I even incorporated a preliminary task just in case the pitches ended earlier.
 

But this is what happened…

Some of them came in late, which held the lesson up because I couldn’t start without all the students present as I needed them to fill ‘peer assessment forms’.  On top of that they were being loud and immature during the presentations. Then students from another class kept interrupting because they needed the technician (technicians room is also within the classroom I was in).

I completely froze and crawled into a shell. I panicked and became completely passive. My mentor saw this and took over the lesson. After that lesson I was completely broken and nearly in tears. I felt like a complete failure. Looking back at my reaction and how the lesson went, I think this happened because things didn’t go the way I planned and I did not know how to respond. I also think having my mentor watch me teach intimidates me because I feel like I am already failing in front of a professional.

Having explained my reaction to my mentor (except for the intimidating one which I should bring up), he decided to address my worries:
> Stand by the door and don’t be afraid to check the corridors and bring them in.
> Have a talk with them when I think they are behaving badly and explain why it is not appropriate. If I need to, I should also bring in vocation and university goals. By doing this I will possibly touch on their intrinsic/extrinsic motivations. 

This also means I need to get my manager side out so I can address behaviour and tap into learners’ motivation. By relating learning to work.
> Every Friday I have a workshop, I need to make this weeks one compulsory because they did not do the work properly.
> I should have checked that learners understood how to fill the form and made it clear that each student needed to give at least one positive and developmental form of feedback.

Upon my reflection I started asking myself questions. As a member of management in a company (outside teaching) I did not understand why I did not call on this side to aid me when I needed discipline or swift feedback on behavioural management. I have decided that I need to build a strong connection between the two if I want to succeed.

I decided to try this out the next day…