Overwhelmed

I was already a little nervous about starting to teach Italian this winter. The term starts in early January, so I'm starting to do some prep work now (because my type-A personality pretty much demands it), and I sent an email to the folks at the community college about what day of the week my class will be. The response I got back yesterday caused my heart rate to increase dramatically.

They said I would be teaching not one, but two classes. That in and of itself might have been acceptable - a little more pocket money, a way to increase my comfort level more quickly - but it wasn't the number of classes but the level that freaked me out. They'd assigned me both a level one and a level two class. This after a comment during my interview that went something like, "Hmm, I'm not seeing any teaching or language items on your resume."

So, I get it. They're desperate for people to teach Italian. And I think, in a way, that's great - it means there are more people out there who are interested in learning a language. But I'm really, really, really not equipped to teach a level two class right now. A former teacher of mine (the one who get me into teaching) said, "Are you capable of teaching at level two? Absolutely. Should you stick to level one your first term to get your feet wet? Absolutely."

I emailed the college folks last night and said, "I hope it doesn't screw up your schedule too much, but please let me just do level one... Please..." The catalog hasn't gone to print yet, and nothing's even online, so I hope I caught it in time.

Now I can go back to just being a little nervous - but mostly really excited - about it.