Right now I'm anxious about the logistics--getting everything correct on the syllabus, printing out the student lists, making sure I even know where to show up tomorrow, that kind of thing. But beneath that is the anxiety of facing twenty four college students and being their teacher. I used to think once I'd taught or presented enough that I'd no longer be nervous, but now I realize that's not true. I'll get nervous no matter what. That's part of the experience, I guess.
The key for me is to go in knowing what we'll be talking about. Preparation, in other words. When I've gotten in trouble in the past (giving a business presentation, teaching a church lesson, even teaching a grammar workshop at the WC) has been when I try and wing it. My goal is to never have to wing it this semester.
Before writing this I browsed through some of the other posts, primarily the "What did you learn this semester?" ones just below. I'm really glad we have that. It answered a number of issues I've already been wondering about, the two biggest being "Remember that they're NOT you" and not trying to save them all.
I'm the "I'm going to save them all!" guy. I don't want to be that guy. It leads to burnout. I'm going to go into this with the old addage "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it" firmly in mind.
Having said that, I'm excited. Bring it on.
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