At ease

There has got to be something going wrong, because I do not feel that stressed out about anything.  I need to be observed and critiqued on how I am doing in the classroom.  The last couple weeks have been just slightly over-bearing for the students which should be where I want them.  I want to get closer to that point where it is just barely beyond their capabilities until I step in to assist them.  Overall I have great and talented students that can make it in the class if they just learned how to focus.  I am afraid they get easily lost in day-dream world or feel that they dont have to use their talents in the classroom.

Last week was mostly on Lab experiments about Newton's Laws.  Too much time was spent on Newton's 2nd Law with motion sensors, calculators, and borrowed lab equipment (almost 4 days!).  What I re-learned from this experience is to answer all questions at the end of giving instructions.  That way, I know I covered how to perform the lab in one sweep, not in multiple stages.  It could have been worse, I did spend a lot of time getting the lab room (which is still a disaster area) prepared for this, so now everyone has a spot in the physics lab, but for a tech-savvy generation, I thought they would be able to navigate through a calculator even with the directions on the board.  I still scratch my head on that one.  Newton's 3rd was a success.  There was not a lot of technology to use, and they were outside the class for the period getting physics in action.