Floundering Along...

Before recess, after having read a segment aloud to students, and then sorta asking some questions about it, while completely ignoring the teacher's guide questions in the margins, here's what I told my teacher: "It was like I asked a question, I got an answer, and you could hear crickets in the background due to the lack of transition and actually using responses! CRICKET, CRICKET!"

After recess, after having discussed the segment further, realizing my questioning was again having same response of silence (minus the one over-acheiver kid who ALWAYS knows the answer): "Do you (their teacher) have anything else further? Other information you were wanting them to get? I'm dyin' up here!"

End of the day realization: Smooth questioning takes practice. Work. Skill. I'm tediously building mine (obviously)--but I find myself again ruing Evergreen's program for not having prepared me. Had I been able to field test some of this stuff throughout the past year (instead of wasting it with some of the crap I've vented about previously), I'd be in the "honing" phase now, instead of the floundering one!

All in all, though, after the wonderful trad weekend, today was a good day back. More and more I'm realizing how much the time spent student teaching will fly by. Went to the gym this evening, now I think I need to go find me a cupcake!