Open Lesson

So I have an open lesson today. Apparently it's kind of a big deal; people from the office of education and various teachers will be coming to watch it. All the other teachers have been given something to clean in anticipation of the the event. I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning my classroom, even going so far as to wipe down the window tracks.

My coteacher for the class is super stressed out about the whole thing. She's created this magnificent lesson with multimedia effects, photos and sound recordings of myself and several students, colored handouts, and games with laminated bits in little baskets. We have a lesson plan with the activities and teaching language blocked out in English. She's gotten my feedback on various points of the English language, even if I wasn't allowed to contribute to the actual lesson planning. There are props. We will both teach about equally during the lesson. It is, admittedly, a beautiful lesson. I'm sure it will go very well. My coteacher will receive a lot of praise for this lesson, and deservedly so.

I'm trying really, really hard to just appreciate this one beautiful, perfect lesson. I'm trying really, really hard to not compare it to every other lesson that I'm forced to teach alone, directly out of this stupid textbook, every day of the year when there aren't people there to see.