Frustrating!

Ok so the science camp is great! The boys are great (so far!), my teacher/partner is great (and goofy!), our ideas are working... its all fantastic.

My actual "class" on the other hand is insanely frustrating. Its also hard to describe why its frustrating..... so I will try and if you don't get it.... well I'm too busy to try something else. So, imagine that you can juggle... you have practiced so much that juggling is in your muscle memory - you do it by habit without actually thinking about what you are doing. Now imagine that someone is trying to re-teach you how to juggle. As soon as you start thinking about what you are doing - what happens? You drop all the balls!!!!! Especially if someone is trying to teach you in a way different than the way you learned.

So that's the best way I can explain what is going on in my head right now. I completely understand that someone who doesn't know how to juggle (aka teach science) needs a clear/concise explanation. I also get that it is a fantastic idea to re-evaluate how you do what you do (think, juggle, teach, whatever) so that you can keep a fresh and open perspective. I even get that seeing/understanding that there are different ways to do something helps you be better able to explain how to do that something to someone else. Unfortunately none of that "insight" helps me not be frustrated with the situation. I'd much rather be facing the "learning how to teach science" facet of things like the rest of my class rather than my current "I need to dissect my own thought process, explain it, try to adapt it to a different method, and maintain forward progression all at the same time."

To add to my pleasure, my professor seems delighted with my frustration and is very interested to see how I overcome the challenge. Well that is just swell. I have to say that he is actually fantastic (not Dr. Wagner, but high up on the likeable-professor scale), but that answer was about as far from helpful as it gets.

Needless to say I am in an overall grumpy mood. So my kids better behave :)