Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Terrified. Manic. Glorious.

So I was asked to teach "after school enrichment" to 5- and 6-year-olds at our elementary school. I had to get fingerprinted and background checked. When I asked the fingerprinting lady if I should have accelerated my Great Bank Robbery plan, she said "Definitely. You're in the FBI database now, so forget it." Alas.

The first class was today. I'm teaching computers. I told the assistant principle that my first class was going to be "Breaching corporate firewalls step 1: port scanning with NMAP."

But I was joking.

Actually, they made colorful name tags with MaxWrite and used a paint program to make pictures of their houses. For the most part, they had a really good time. One kid absolutely lost it because he couldn't use the paint bucket tool to fill a square... to the point that he almost threw up. Ah, kids.

Before the class I was absolutely terrified and in freakout mode. I get terrible stage fright, even if I'm going "on stage" in front of kids. Unlike performing music, though, my worries fade the moment I'm actually talking to the kids. I get totally charged up by kid-energy. It makes me manic for days. They're just so cool.

One class down, seven more to go. What are we going to do next week? I better start planning.

Love to all. Even you, the hyperconcerned mommy.

2 comments:

Callisto said...

Ha. I get nervous when it is my turn to provide the craft activity at Playgroup, those 3 and 4 year olds are a very tough audience.

Anonymous said...

Kids are so unpredictable, unbelievable and scary at times, but well worth the effort aren't they?