I Did What?

WHAT THE....

This past semester I have been observing students at one of the local High School's trying to gear up to student teach, (UGH) and today I got a chance at teaching.  I didn't mind teaching, it was not terrible.  I was lucky enough to be in an advanced nutrition class with mostly seniors.  The "super seniors" were very well behaved and there was only once that I stopped and looked at two girls chatting.  I stopped talking, gave them a look that said, "Ladies, I'm in charge now zip it!" Nicely, YES NICELY glared them down until they stopped talking.  Fair enough, right?

Okay, let's get to the "WHAT THE..."  My teacher, whom I have been observing, asked that I teach for about 20 minutes on the introduction into Lipids - FATS, and other chemistry related junk.  I got completely honest with her a few weeks back, and told her straight up that I don't care to be a teacher anymore...(wondering now if I ever wanted to teach in the first place....I'm digressing here....)  She assured me that I would do a great job teaching, and from what she has already observed from my being in the classroom she said I would be good at it???  What does she know, but whatever?  I told her I am happy to be here and do whatever is asked of me, and when I student teach (at this same school - totally happy about that) I will keep a positive attitude and do my best.  But, come graduation I am heading to the skies to be a flight attendant, if the Lord be will'n of course.  If that's not the case, then what the heck, I'll put my teaching degree and license to work.  Somewhere, hopefully???  Still, I am hoping for the skies baby, the deep blue skies baby!  Again, I'm digressing!!!!!

So, my practicum teacher asked me to teach on lipids.  I studied up to find that lipids - what I am studying now in food science actually goes really well with this nutrition teaching lesson.  I decided to be all cutesy and make a fun little toddler game - "Memory" out of all the lipid terms.  I made color copies of lipid based pictures, put them on red and yellow paper (to match their school colors), and then when the student would make a match with one of the lipid terms we would then discuss that picture/term.  I had pictures of Cheerios to represent cholesterol, a girl throwing up to represent bile which is made from cholesterol, a jar of Mayonnaise to represent phospholipids that create emulsions, and so forth.  Of course I made several other pictures/terms, but this is boring stuff, that involves chemistry and we all know how much I love chemistry....  Speaking of chemistry....as the pictures in the game got turned over, and the matches were made we came to a term known as Triglyceride.  Oh no, this is where I suddenly got all chemical on my students and started talking about saturated fats and unsaturated fats, WHAT THE!!!  Saturated and unsaturated fats always gave me such a headache I could never understand what they are and how they work.  Now all of a sudden I'm spouting out these terms like it's my favorite subject in the world.  I thought for sure that once my chemistry hootenannies were over and done with I would be completely rid of that terrible subject.  Just ain't so ya'll.  I was pouring out chemistry terms like soda pop from a fountain.  Again, WHAT THE?!?!?  Here's to saying I guess this battle of chemistry is actually doing some good in my life, for whatever reason.

Yeppers, I had to teach today, and I did the unthinkable by talking about chemistry, which I never in a million years thought it would be of any use.  I was proven wrong with that hypotenuse???  Seriously, more chemistry crap coming out of my mouth!  Stop the madness!  To end my little teaching stint we ended with a clip from the good o'l John Candy era, and watched a short clip from The Great Outdoors to finish my lesson off with another lipid term known as satiety.  Which is how fats make you have that feeling of being full - you might feel that here in a few weeks after Thanksgiving...just saying.

When all was said and done I actually enjoyed teaching today, and maybe this teaching thing won't be so bad after all?  However, I still need to get through next semester with student teaching and all it has to offer.  In fact, I just found out who I'm student teaching with, and where I'm student teaching at.  I will have two foods classes (cooking classes), an adult roles class, and my most exciting class interior design. I will be observing/helping out in a pro start cooking class, and an advanced sewing class.  Sadly though, when I got the high school calendar I immediately sat down and counted/marked all 60 days I have to be in the classroom.  I start January 9, 2012 and will end April 3, 2012 - happy day!!!  Won't it be interesting to see how many more "WHAT THE's" I end up having....