Takeaways from the second week back

Second week back and I'm always learning.

On Monday, I had my first day working in the language lab, and I'm SO GLAD that I practiced before going in there.  On my practice run lesson, everything went wrong, but I worked out some of those bugs and the class was not terrible.  However, there was some fumbling around on my part.  I think it'll get better but I may have to keep going for more dry runs before the next lesson I teach in the language lab.

Today I was reminded of the importance of focusing student attention on a common object before breaking into group work.  I wanted to hurry through some material so I had them start on group work before really providing whole group instruction.  It seemed to me my students were a little off track, the class a bit disunified, the message less clear.  I always seem to be learning the same lessons again and again....

These are only two of the takeaways from my lessons this second week of classes.  How about you?  Are you back in the classroom?  How are things?  What lesson did you learn (or re-learn) this week?