Since my life and every ounce of my time currently belongs to MCHS I have a list instead of a real life post. Since some of life still needs to be documented especially the really sweet things:
- Mark dug the car out of the snow for me yesterday. He also warms it up every morning. That man. He's swell.
- Coming home to hot cocoa after a particularly long Monday.
- The student who told me that she loves the way I teach.
- Mark making dinner AND doing dishes while I sit in the spare room typing out lesson plans.
- Family members who ordered birthday presents for me from Spain.
- Our nightly activity of Lego Harry Potter, except when Mark hits me with a spell, then I get annoyed.
- University Supervisors who are really nice when your government class was a little chaotic during your observation.
Now back to lesson planning.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Surviving.
So to say this last week and a half has been a breeze would really be a load of crap. I am loving student teaching, don't get me wrong. But the whole working after teaching....kind of sucks. It doesn't help that I've got senioritis way bad and just want to be done working a job that doesn't include teaching English.
My kids are pretty great to far. No one is throwing things at me or tying me up, so I consider it a success. I confiscated a cell phone the other day, and it made me feel powerful and also very old. My mom said that I was being mean, but I have to be strict so that they don't walk all over me right?
So far I am surviving, and loving it. This has brought me WAY outside my comfort zone, but at the same time to a place where I feel like I belong. I get what these kids are saying and I'm trying to show them that I can teach them something worth while. I think that has been the hardest part of teaching, is showing them that what we're talking about will help them regardless of what they plan to do when they're done with high school. One girl told me she didn't need to write well and have good grammar because she was going to be a hair stylist, I told her to go home and do some looking into what hair school requires and what running her own salon would require. She came back and I think that she understands now that I'm not teaching something trivial. Or at least that is the hope.
More than anything though, I have never felt better about the decisions I have made in my college career that have brought me to this point. I guess my 18 year old self really did know what she was doing.
My kids are pretty great to far. No one is throwing things at me or tying me up, so I consider it a success. I confiscated a cell phone the other day, and it made me feel powerful and also very old. My mom said that I was being mean, but I have to be strict so that they don't walk all over me right?
So far I am surviving, and loving it. This has brought me WAY outside my comfort zone, but at the same time to a place where I feel like I belong. I get what these kids are saying and I'm trying to show them that I can teach them something worth while. I think that has been the hardest part of teaching, is showing them that what we're talking about will help them regardless of what they plan to do when they're done with high school. One girl told me she didn't need to write well and have good grammar because she was going to be a hair stylist, I told her to go home and do some looking into what hair school requires and what running her own salon would require. She came back and I think that she understands now that I'm not teaching something trivial. Or at least that is the hope.
More than anything though, I have never felt better about the decisions I have made in my college career that have brought me to this point. I guess my 18 year old self really did know what she was doing.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Once.
Once upon a time there was a girl who decided to go to Utah State and become and English teacher. All of this sounded really good because it was a really far off thing. She assumed she would get over her fear of talking in front of people and feel like she knew everything there was to know about being a good teacher. Then reality settled in and she realized that in four years of education she still gets scared in front of people and she feels like she knows less now about how to be a good teacher than she did was she graduated high school....
In two days I am going to have my own classroom of juniors and seniors patiently waiting to attack me and eat me alive. I don't know how this all came so fast. I was supposed to be more confident now and not scared of being up in front of a classroom. Having gone through the education program I now feel that I know a lot of good theories of teaching, but very little of the practical stuff I'm actually going to be using. Seriously, only two days?
I still have loads of questions. Like where do I eat lunch and am I grown up enough to eat in the teacher's lounge? I probably need a parking pass....where do I get this? What if I totally BOMB this thing?
I have legit been having nightmares about teaching for weeks. Classes where I show up and I'm teaching something like chemistry and I have no textbooks and the students don't learn anything and I fail student teaching. Gah....I'm in trouble. Not because I'm teaching chemistry, but because I'm teaching writing and that is just as bad. How do you teach someone to do something that comes instinctively to you? Give me literature. Great scott, give me Shakespeare and I will teach it happily, but not so. I get writing and I hope that I might be able to do something of some use for these kids. I'm nervous, but I hope that in some way this nervousness eventually translates into something I can use to be a good teacher.
Two days guys. Cross your fingers.
In two days I am going to have my own classroom of juniors and seniors patiently waiting to attack me and eat me alive. I don't know how this all came so fast. I was supposed to be more confident now and not scared of being up in front of a classroom. Having gone through the education program I now feel that I know a lot of good theories of teaching, but very little of the practical stuff I'm actually going to be using. Seriously, only two days?
I still have loads of questions. Like where do I eat lunch and am I grown up enough to eat in the teacher's lounge? I probably need a parking pass....where do I get this? What if I totally BOMB this thing?
I have legit been having nightmares about teaching for weeks. Classes where I show up and I'm teaching something like chemistry and I have no textbooks and the students don't learn anything and I fail student teaching. Gah....I'm in trouble. Not because I'm teaching chemistry, but because I'm teaching writing and that is just as bad. How do you teach someone to do something that comes instinctively to you? Give me literature. Great scott, give me Shakespeare and I will teach it happily, but not so. I get writing and I hope that I might be able to do something of some use for these kids. I'm nervous, but I hope that in some way this nervousness eventually translates into something I can use to be a good teacher.
Two days guys. Cross your fingers.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)