system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Conducted my first lecture today. It did not go well

I’m a TA and this term I am conducting classes for one of the intro lectures for first years. It’s like a general knowledge module on my country (so we cover history, econ, politics etc). 

I had my first independent lecture today on a topic I’m not familiar with at all. And it was so bad. I couldn’t pronounce a few names (it was on the origin of our language), my explanations were all over the place and I couldn’t answer a question a student had (I did answer it later though). I found out the topic yesterday so I didn’t have enough time to prepare. 

I’m not sure how to deal with this. This was their first impression of me and I’m a little worried that I’ll make things worse for them. 

Was anyone ever in a similar situation? How do I recover from this?
gpt
Oh, the first time standing in front of a class of students is hard!! You go in so confident, thinking you are prepared, and then as you begin you start seeing all the gaps, and then leave feeling so deflated.

It is actually one reason why getting students to teach each other concepts is a great learning tool.

It gets easier, you work on your gaps, you find your strengths (and play to them) etc etc.