I finished my workfolio today, the big collection of stuff we can use in our classrooms next year. I think my parent letter is good, so I am very psyched about that. All of my stuff needs some more tweaking so hopefully I can get that all squared away in another week and I can really get down to business on my unit plans and all the lesson plans for September. I guess my goal for the rest of the summer is to finish both grades' unit plans and plan about six lesson plans for September, which includes the stuff I do on rules and all that. I think that introductory stuff will be about two days. I love September holidays by the way. Thank you September gods for giving me a few days extra to rearrange if things go horribly.
These last few days of summer student teaching are really tough. One of the kids told me today that he's going to curse me out on the last day. I didn't do anything about it because I think that's really ridiculous, but I realize now that I totally should have kicked him out of the room. That's like a threat right? The hardest part about teaching is you have to make snap judgments all day long, which I don't think I am very good at yet. And it's not like being a doctor where you can say ok here's what's happening right now, what can I do for that. Because kids are absolutely unpredictable and irrational. And insane and rude. I am coming down hard next year with my rules, I am not wasting my time being annoyed and flustered.
Also today we watched a video called F.A.T. City, which was about the way Special Education students feel in general ed classrooms. It stands for frustration, anxiety, tension. It was really interesting. If anyone has an opportunity to see it, they should most definitely do so. It sort of put people in situations that many learning disabled students find themselves in and it brings up a lot of stuff I never even thought about. One thing that was really interesting was how some students can't distinguish letters that are spatial rotations of the same shape, such as b, p, q, d. Actually, that's a perfect order for that because you can see a p is a flipped down b, is a mirrored q is a flipped up d. So I can totally see how that can be challenging. And then the people in the video were given paragraphs to read where they not only had to decide which of those four letters was "correct" in words, but the words started and ended in weird pieces and were all over the page. It was really hard for the people in the video to read like that and they sounded just like some students do when they are struggling to read. Amazing. I thought a really good thing to do if students had that spatial processing issue would be to let them write in Caps lock, since the letters all look different. That sounds like a really good example of differentiation, no?
Bleck, I am supposed to teach something tomorrow and we are all finished with teaching stuff. Every day this week is supposed to be about the students finishing their letters, so there's no reason for me to teach anything new. The field visitor crap is a waste of time. I don't know what I'm going to teach. I'm going to decide on the train tomorrow. My cooperating teacher doesn't want me to teach more than like five minutes anyway, since the kids get such little work done in a period, they need as much time as possible. Boo for field visitors. So sleepy now.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Last week
I've got one week left. I am super excited to be done soon. As helpful as this summer has been, I need some time to just step back and think of how I can apply all the things I learned to next year. When you are going through the program, you really don't get much opportunity to think about what you will actually do as a teacher. The fellowship throws so much information at you, but you're so exhausted and over-worked that it's hard to get any time to say, "ok how can I use this information in my classroom, what will I actually do next year?" So I think I'll be doing that once school ends.
Although I have a curriculum planning meeting today with a woman who has been teaching Spanish for ten years or something. I actually feel really lucky, my principal set me up with this woman and she's totally excited to just sit down with me and really plan out my year. I was talking to another fellow about this and she said that it sounds like my school is totally setting me up for success, so I want to really try to use this opportunity for the best.
We are meeting today at 3:30 and right now it's raining like a mother. For some reason, the lightning at my new apartment is always very loud. We must be in some sort of lightning hotspot? Do those exist? The lightning almost always sets off car alarms and the thunder is instantaneous. How could it be that the lightning is always so close to my apartment? It's really weird. Three separate storms now have been like this. It scares my kitty.
I have a huge workfolio to do, which is sort of a collection of different the tools I'll use next year. I wonder if I mentioned this already. Anyway, it's due on Tuesday and I'm really lagging on starting it. I don't think it's going to be hard, I just hate doing work on the weekends because it seems like I do non-stop work during the week. Oh! I am 1/5 done with my masters! That's pretty exciting right? So far I have a 4.0, so hopefully I'll get an A in this class I just finished. I'd love to get summa cum laude for my graduate degree, but I'm not even sure if they do that stuff in graduate school. I got cum laude undergrad because of a stupid required physics class that was way too hard for an introductory course. It also didn't help that I was working 30 hours a week for the worst boss ever and it was my first class at my school in New York, which was a much more challenging environment than the school I had transferred from.
I guess I'll work on my workfolio now. I've got to do rules, consequences and procedures today and a self-reflection I think. I've also got to finish my unit plans, but I think I'll do that with the lady today, hopefully. Very hungry too, I guess I'll need to eat. I'll do that too.
Although I have a curriculum planning meeting today with a woman who has been teaching Spanish for ten years or something. I actually feel really lucky, my principal set me up with this woman and she's totally excited to just sit down with me and really plan out my year. I was talking to another fellow about this and she said that it sounds like my school is totally setting me up for success, so I want to really try to use this opportunity for the best.
We are meeting today at 3:30 and right now it's raining like a mother. For some reason, the lightning at my new apartment is always very loud. We must be in some sort of lightning hotspot? Do those exist? The lightning almost always sets off car alarms and the thunder is instantaneous. How could it be that the lightning is always so close to my apartment? It's really weird. Three separate storms now have been like this. It scares my kitty.
I have a huge workfolio to do, which is sort of a collection of different the tools I'll use next year. I wonder if I mentioned this already. Anyway, it's due on Tuesday and I'm really lagging on starting it. I don't think it's going to be hard, I just hate doing work on the weekends because it seems like I do non-stop work during the week. Oh! I am 1/5 done with my masters! That's pretty exciting right? So far I have a 4.0, so hopefully I'll get an A in this class I just finished. I'd love to get summa cum laude for my graduate degree, but I'm not even sure if they do that stuff in graduate school. I got cum laude undergrad because of a stupid required physics class that was way too hard for an introductory course. It also didn't help that I was working 30 hours a week for the worst boss ever and it was my first class at my school in New York, which was a much more challenging environment than the school I had transferred from.
I guess I'll work on my workfolio now. I've got to do rules, consequences and procedures today and a self-reflection I think. I've also got to finish my unit plans, but I think I'll do that with the lady today, hopefully. Very hungry too, I guess I'll need to eat. I'll do that too.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Students are strange
Today the problems with S. kind of came to a head. It started right away, as soon as second period started. He was sitting down fine and then randomly decided to get up and talk to his friend who he always talks to. I said, S. get back to your seat. Nothing. He didn't turn and look at me, he didn't stop talking, and he certainly didn't go back to his seat. I said that probably about three times with the same results. Which was ineffective obviously.
Later in the period, he announced I'm finished, after he had filled in an entire worksheet and wanted to move on to the second part of class which involved getting a computer. Well, the only problem was that a. students had to get their work checked before moving on and b. I was right next to him and not busy whereas my cooperating teacher was across the room helping other students. So I said ok S, let me see your work and then I'll get you a computer. Yeah fucking right. He was like no I want Mr. Cooperating teacher, I don't have to work with you, go work with other students, etc etc etc. We talked about ten minutes and it was nothing doing, totally disrespectful "get out of my face" and "stop bothering me" all over the place. So finally I said, Mr. Cooperating Teacher, I cannot have this, S. has to go now. He agreed, since he had intervened in all the of day's events to say you need to show her some respect and S. had said no I don't, or some variant of the like.
So I went to get an administrator and I said, look I am just having a really hard time with this student, he refuses to listen to me or work with me, and he's absolutely disrespectful. We decided to have a meeting after the period was over and it was absolutely unhelpful. S. totally insisted that he shouldn't have to work with me and insisted that I had yelled at him. He also flat out lied about what had just happened saying I was insisting that he needed help and that he kept telling me that he didn't need help and that he wasn't finished. I actually said in the meeting, well S. when you called out I'm finished that led me to believe that you were finished. He didn't deny that, but he just kept up with his story. It was bizarre. Students are strange, as I said. The meeting ended when the administrator said we would have to call his mom because his disrespect was getting out of hand and he almost began to cry. It was crazy! I didn't want him to cry. It was weird too, because I can't see how he could have thought that the way he was treating me was o.k, so it couldn't have been unexpected. I would have been totally fine with not calling his mom if he would have just used the meeting to agree to some sort of compromise on working together, but instead he used it to be more hostile and lie! to my face!
Unfortunately, the administrator decided that she would be calling his mom tonight and that hopefully that will turn things around. She said to address any misbehavior one time and then to just let it go unless it's really disruptive to the whole class or something. So I'm going to do that from now on and then she said to let her know how tomorrow goes and if he is still having problems working with me that we could bring his mom in for a meeting. It's so weird to me that adolescents cannot foresee parent teacher conferences for misbehavior. S. was like stunned when his mom's name was mentioned in the conference, even though I said in class to him that if this keeps happening I would be calling his mom. What the hell?
Dear, this post has gotten much longer than I wanted. It's past 9:30, which is my bedtime, since I am an old lady. Hopefully this situation will be resolved tomorrow, but I get a sinking feeling that it wont be. Until then.
Later in the period, he announced I'm finished, after he had filled in an entire worksheet and wanted to move on to the second part of class which involved getting a computer. Well, the only problem was that a. students had to get their work checked before moving on and b. I was right next to him and not busy whereas my cooperating teacher was across the room helping other students. So I said ok S, let me see your work and then I'll get you a computer. Yeah fucking right. He was like no I want Mr. Cooperating teacher, I don't have to work with you, go work with other students, etc etc etc. We talked about ten minutes and it was nothing doing, totally disrespectful "get out of my face" and "stop bothering me" all over the place. So finally I said, Mr. Cooperating Teacher, I cannot have this, S. has to go now. He agreed, since he had intervened in all the of day's events to say you need to show her some respect and S. had said no I don't, or some variant of the like.
So I went to get an administrator and I said, look I am just having a really hard time with this student, he refuses to listen to me or work with me, and he's absolutely disrespectful. We decided to have a meeting after the period was over and it was absolutely unhelpful. S. totally insisted that he shouldn't have to work with me and insisted that I had yelled at him. He also flat out lied about what had just happened saying I was insisting that he needed help and that he kept telling me that he didn't need help and that he wasn't finished. I actually said in the meeting, well S. when you called out I'm finished that led me to believe that you were finished. He didn't deny that, but he just kept up with his story. It was bizarre. Students are strange, as I said. The meeting ended when the administrator said we would have to call his mom because his disrespect was getting out of hand and he almost began to cry. It was crazy! I didn't want him to cry. It was weird too, because I can't see how he could have thought that the way he was treating me was o.k, so it couldn't have been unexpected. I would have been totally fine with not calling his mom if he would have just used the meeting to agree to some sort of compromise on working together, but instead he used it to be more hostile and lie! to my face!
Unfortunately, the administrator decided that she would be calling his mom tonight and that hopefully that will turn things around. She said to address any misbehavior one time and then to just let it go unless it's really disruptive to the whole class or something. So I'm going to do that from now on and then she said to let her know how tomorrow goes and if he is still having problems working with me that we could bring his mom in for a meeting. It's so weird to me that adolescents cannot foresee parent teacher conferences for misbehavior. S. was like stunned when his mom's name was mentioned in the conference, even though I said in class to him that if this keeps happening I would be calling his mom. What the hell?
Dear, this post has gotten much longer than I wanted. It's past 9:30, which is my bedtime, since I am an old lady. Hopefully this situation will be resolved tomorrow, but I get a sinking feeling that it wont be. Until then.
Monday, July 23, 2007
So close to the finish
So, today was crap. It rained in buckets which was bad and apparently, when it rains, children refuse to act normal or do work. Instead they get crazy and disrespectful.
The kid who last week or so told me to get out of his damn face is actually out of control. He was so disrespectful to me all day, he is absolutely convinced that he is in charge. He gets out of his seat and he walks around the room all the time, just to talk to his friend. He doesn't do any of his work and he talks back to everything I or the teacher says. When I try to speak to him he says get out of my face or stop bothering me, and he acts like such a jerk that I start getting angry. This is not at all helpful. I really want to try and work on keeping my cool when students are angry, but his tone is so hostile and anxious that it makes me feel that way. With the other boy, the one who called me racist, he doesn't listen to what I say but he doesn't get all worked up about it so it's much easier for me to stay calm, but when S. is getting all worked up I find it really hard to keep my calm.
I have no more food, but I also have no more money. We don't get paid again until next Friday and I have to make twenty dollars that I got out of the atm on Saturday last the whole time. I'm going to try and save up to buy an apartment. I am sick of moving around and my parents hate to visit the neighborhoods I can afford. Plus, rent just keeps going up and I hate the thought of living in ridiculously far away neighborhoods forever. It seems like every time I move, I get farther and farther into Brooklyn. The real estate market here is absolutely bizarre. I can't understand how working-class people can get pushed out all the time. Who affords the 4000 dollar a month studio apartments? Who even wants that?
It looks like the rain is clearing up. I should probably get started on my mountains of work. I am so tired of this work. Three more days of graduate classes and seven more days of summer school student teaching. I can't stand those jerks anymore!
The kid who last week or so told me to get out of his damn face is actually out of control. He was so disrespectful to me all day, he is absolutely convinced that he is in charge. He gets out of his seat and he walks around the room all the time, just to talk to his friend. He doesn't do any of his work and he talks back to everything I or the teacher says. When I try to speak to him he says get out of my face or stop bothering me, and he acts like such a jerk that I start getting angry. This is not at all helpful. I really want to try and work on keeping my cool when students are angry, but his tone is so hostile and anxious that it makes me feel that way. With the other boy, the one who called me racist, he doesn't listen to what I say but he doesn't get all worked up about it so it's much easier for me to stay calm, but when S. is getting all worked up I find it really hard to keep my calm.
I have no more food, but I also have no more money. We don't get paid again until next Friday and I have to make twenty dollars that I got out of the atm on Saturday last the whole time. I'm going to try and save up to buy an apartment. I am sick of moving around and my parents hate to visit the neighborhoods I can afford. Plus, rent just keeps going up and I hate the thought of living in ridiculously far away neighborhoods forever. It seems like every time I move, I get farther and farther into Brooklyn. The real estate market here is absolutely bizarre. I can't understand how working-class people can get pushed out all the time. Who affords the 4000 dollar a month studio apartments? Who even wants that?
It looks like the rain is clearing up. I should probably get started on my mountains of work. I am so tired of this work. Three more days of graduate classes and seven more days of summer school student teaching. I can't stand those jerks anymore!
Friday, July 20, 2007
"Content" Workshops
Today is Friday and Friday means "content" workshops. And that means extended waste of my time. The problem is that there are very few Spanish Fellows in the program. By my count no more than about 75. There are only two classes, one at my university and one class at another university, which means there are only two Fellow Advisers for the Spanish Fellows, mine and the other one. The problem with this is that the Fellow Advisers lead each of the content workshops, but the teaching fellows program decided there would be four content workshops each Friday. So what happens is that I, and all the other Spanish Fellows too, get two content workshops that are good for us, and then two that are for E.S.L. teachers. The fellowship likes to pretend that these are good for both since we are all language teachers, but they are lying. Today in one of my "content" workshops I learned the name of the test E.S.L students take to assess their English language level, the LAB-R in case you were wondering. What a ridiculous waste of my time.
I arrived around ten minutes late and I almost ditched my last class, but since I had to wait for a friend to go out with after the workshops and I couldn't find her and convince her to ditch with me, I stayed for the full four hours. The last class wasn't that bad because I played E.S.L. jeopardy with a cute English guy. Like, an actual guy from England, not someone teaching English. It was weird because he said oh hey I'm my name and I said Hi, I'm my name and then he goes, in his British accent, "Are you English?" I was like... wait, that's what I'm supposed to ask. I've actually gotten that on multiple occasions previously, which is weird. I always thought people were just crazy, but to get that from an actual English person must mean it's true. I don't realize I'm doing that at all. Kind of fun I guess.
I'm having a lot of problems with one boy in my summer school class, but I'll post about that at another time I think. I took a nap at 7:30 and woke up about 15 minutes ago. I think I'm going to go back to sleep for the night now. This is really getting exhausting, only one/two more weeks to go. Yay!
I arrived around ten minutes late and I almost ditched my last class, but since I had to wait for a friend to go out with after the workshops and I couldn't find her and convince her to ditch with me, I stayed for the full four hours. The last class wasn't that bad because I played E.S.L. jeopardy with a cute English guy. Like, an actual guy from England, not someone teaching English. It was weird because he said oh hey I'm my name and I said Hi, I'm my name and then he goes, in his British accent, "Are you English?" I was like... wait, that's what I'm supposed to ask. I've actually gotten that on multiple occasions previously, which is weird. I always thought people were just crazy, but to get that from an actual English person must mean it's true. I don't realize I'm doing that at all. Kind of fun I guess.
I'm having a lot of problems with one boy in my summer school class, but I'll post about that at another time I think. I took a nap at 7:30 and woke up about 15 minutes ago. I think I'm going to go back to sleep for the night now. This is really getting exhausting, only one/two more weeks to go. Yay!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
An unpleasant day
Today was my first day teaching in my summer training. Let's just say it started off well. Let's not mention that after the first fifteen minutes or so everyone stopped paying attention or doing any of the work they were supposed to and started talking, throwing things, getting up from their seat, basically anything they could think of. The kids were being total assholes, for no reason. They do not act like this normally, they know they're not supposed to act like that. They just figured hey she's not our teacher, we can do whatever the fuck we want right now. It was weird though because my cooperating teaching was still in the room and he was still telling the students to pay attention or whatever, and they just didn't. Little fuckers.
The good thing is that my observer left, I think, before the madness began. The bad thing is this means I have to start teaching everyday so the assholes realize that I am the teacher in the class and that they have to do work when I'm teaching. I don't want to have what happened today happen while my observer is in the room, even though it doesn't actually matter if she says I'm bad. The fellows program, which I will speak about at another time, is a huge joke!
I was pretty bummed out and a little shocked afterwards, but now I'm just like meh. At the time I didn't want to go back ever again, but now I kind of do want to try again and try out new things and see if I can find a solution. Which I think is a really good thing because if I was ready to give up after one bad experience, I would think the year ahead of me would be pretty challenging. I just have to try and find a way to get over my failures quicker so I can keep moving during the day and try again each period. I didn't have to do that today, but next year in my own class I will so that's what I'm going to try and work on. Plus, if I can get used to failing and dealing with behavioral problems every day, then next year when I'm at my school with my amazing and wonderful kids, I'll think each day is a breeze. Hooray for lowering your standards!
The good thing is that my observer left, I think, before the madness began. The bad thing is this means I have to start teaching everyday so the assholes realize that I am the teacher in the class and that they have to do work when I'm teaching. I don't want to have what happened today happen while my observer is in the room, even though it doesn't actually matter if she says I'm bad. The fellows program, which I will speak about at another time, is a huge joke!
I was pretty bummed out and a little shocked afterwards, but now I'm just like meh. At the time I didn't want to go back ever again, but now I kind of do want to try again and try out new things and see if I can find a solution. Which I think is a really good thing because if I was ready to give up after one bad experience, I would think the year ahead of me would be pretty challenging. I just have to try and find a way to get over my failures quicker so I can keep moving during the day and try again each period. I didn't have to do that today, but next year in my own class I will so that's what I'm going to try and work on. Plus, if I can get used to failing and dealing with behavioral problems every day, then next year when I'm at my school with my amazing and wonderful kids, I'll think each day is a breeze. Hooray for lowering your standards!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Get out of my damn face...
... Was what a boy in my student teaching said to me today. Whoa. All of a sudden the kids are going fucking nuts! What the hell?? Another boy called me racist. What do I do with that?
When S. told me to get out of his damn face, I was in the process of asking him to stop talking to his friend M., who he sits next to and talks with everyday without fail. I had asked them a few times to please stop talking because the teacher was talking and he just blew me off. Finally, I told him that working in a group was a privilege and that if he couldn't stop talking to M. he would have to move. When he ignored me I said ok S. you've got to move now. You can't sit here anymore. He continued to ignore me so I sat down in the empty desk next to him so as not to make a scene, and then he started freaking out. He was so angry he was shaking. It really seemed overdone. What did I do? I wasn't that close to him. I can understand that some kids, because of abuse or various other reasons, have issues with their personal space, but I don't think I was that close. And what do you do when you are standing right next to a kid and they are ignoring you?
I was so frustrated after he said that to me and the teacher had to come and basically rescue me that I wanted to cry. What am I supposed to do? S. seems to think I'm someone to be ignored and if I just walk away and let him not listen to me, then he'll never listen to me, and I'm supposed to be teaching a lesson in his class on Wednesday. I'm nervous.
The boy who called me a racist started going crazy too. I must be doing something wrong, but I don't know what to do. I'm stressed out by this. The boy called me a racist in jest and I told him that racism is a serious allegation and I don't appreciate being called that and I don't know. All of a sudden he was actually mad. He mostly just jokes around and acts inappropriate and says things to bate me, but after I spoke to him about racism he was really angry. What did I do?
The kids were doing really great up until now and this week it seems like they aren't interested in listening to me or being on task. What happened over the weekend I ask?
When S. told me to get out of his damn face, I was in the process of asking him to stop talking to his friend M., who he sits next to and talks with everyday without fail. I had asked them a few times to please stop talking because the teacher was talking and he just blew me off. Finally, I told him that working in a group was a privilege and that if he couldn't stop talking to M. he would have to move. When he ignored me I said ok S. you've got to move now. You can't sit here anymore. He continued to ignore me so I sat down in the empty desk next to him so as not to make a scene, and then he started freaking out. He was so angry he was shaking. It really seemed overdone. What did I do? I wasn't that close to him. I can understand that some kids, because of abuse or various other reasons, have issues with their personal space, but I don't think I was that close. And what do you do when you are standing right next to a kid and they are ignoring you?
I was so frustrated after he said that to me and the teacher had to come and basically rescue me that I wanted to cry. What am I supposed to do? S. seems to think I'm someone to be ignored and if I just walk away and let him not listen to me, then he'll never listen to me, and I'm supposed to be teaching a lesson in his class on Wednesday. I'm nervous.
The boy who called me a racist started going crazy too. I must be doing something wrong, but I don't know what to do. I'm stressed out by this. The boy called me a racist in jest and I told him that racism is a serious allegation and I don't appreciate being called that and I don't know. All of a sudden he was actually mad. He mostly just jokes around and acts inappropriate and says things to bate me, but after I spoke to him about racism he was really angry. What did I do?
The kids were doing really great up until now and this week it seems like they aren't interested in listening to me or being on task. What happened over the weekend I ask?
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A plea for help
So, I've been reading a lot of mildly melancholy, a blog by a former teaching fellow. Well kind of former, I get the feeling that some people think when you're a teaching fellow you're a fellow forever. I also get the feeling that you kind of stop being a teaching fellow after your first summer since the "organization" or what have you more or less drop you like a hot potato, what a dorky metaphor.
Anyway! The blog has really motivated me to do more updating, in addition to the fact that I seem to get hits when I update my post, and that thrills me. I just finished reading about her first year of teaching, and I must say I am terrified. She seemed to have a pretty rough time of it, especially the first few months. Although, she didn't start the year off at her school which I think worked against her a lot and is something I wont have to deal with. But it scares me more that her lessons seem to be so interesting or, at the very least, creative. I just don't feel creative about lesson planning. I'm nervous.
A foreign language is such a complicated learning process and I can't think of a good way to teach the stuff that I want to teach. I'm trying to follow this "workshop model" thing, and the individual and group practice things are pretty ok. Even assessment is manageable, at least I think. And I plan on doing an "hagan ahora" of review for my opening. But Mini-lesson? What the hell do I do there? How can you engage students in things like verb conjugations? I, obviously, think it's super awesome. I actually thought for a long time before applying to the fellowship that if I could only find a job wherein I would simply do Spanish grammar worksheets all day, that my life would be endlessly complete. But I'm sure 13 year olds don't think like me. Help!
Anyway! The blog has really motivated me to do more updating, in addition to the fact that I seem to get hits when I update my post, and that thrills me. I just finished reading about her first year of teaching, and I must say I am terrified. She seemed to have a pretty rough time of it, especially the first few months. Although, she didn't start the year off at her school which I think worked against her a lot and is something I wont have to deal with. But it scares me more that her lessons seem to be so interesting or, at the very least, creative. I just don't feel creative about lesson planning. I'm nervous.
A foreign language is such a complicated learning process and I can't think of a good way to teach the stuff that I want to teach. I'm trying to follow this "workshop model" thing, and the individual and group practice things are pretty ok. Even assessment is manageable, at least I think. And I plan on doing an "hagan ahora" of review for my opening. But Mini-lesson? What the hell do I do there? How can you engage students in things like verb conjugations? I, obviously, think it's super awesome. I actually thought for a long time before applying to the fellowship that if I could only find a job wherein I would simply do Spanish grammar worksheets all day, that my life would be endlessly complete. But I'm sure 13 year olds don't think like me. Help!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Training happens
Training is going ok I guess. I don't feel helped much though. We started working on lesson planning and stuff and I got a really good start to it all, but I feel like I just don't know where to go now. Saying create a lesson plan is just not very helpful. I need more guidance.
For example, right now I'm working on my unit plans for next year. I decided to start off with the 7th grade plans because those students start from scratch so I can more or less teach them what I want. They haven't learned anything yet so I don't have to worry about teaching them something they already know, with the exception of any native speakers I might have. But, what do I teach them? How much can they learn? How do I know what I should do? I am just confused. It's pretty daunting to me. I have the curriculum map that the old teacher left behind, but the order she went in is confusing to me and I don't know how to alter it without doing too much. It seems like she taught them an average of 6 things per unit, but those 6 things were spread out over two months of instruction, which is close to 16 lessons. Is that weird? Did she spend some days reviewing? I don't get what to do, I need help!
On a nice note I passed my CST, so I don't have to worry about that anymore. Annoyingly enough they sent my score report to my old apartment and I'll probably never see it again. I'm going to have to pay 10 bucks or something to have them send another one. That's what I get for being lazy. But not really, I went on the website to try to change my address about a week prior to the score posting, but it's completely unhelpful and I just don't have time in the day to call the stupid NY State teaching certification exam people, who I'm sure are only open when I'm in training anyway. Bastards.
I don't like the font that the blog gives me as standard, but I can never remember which way does look good and I'd prefer to have a uniform looking blog I think.
Oh, some people came here looking for welcoming event, so I'll just say it was about half as inspiring as it could have been. Mostly because half the time was spent listening to department talking heads saying how great it is that we are joining this noble profession. How about if instead taking the day off to tell 1700 some new semi-qualified teachers how great it is that they are joining such a noble profession, you support working teachers so they all stop quitting? I don't mean to sound ungrateful because this is probably the only way I would have become a teacher, but really, I'm still going to suck this year and probably next year and those kids are going to lose out because of it. And if, god forbid, I have some sort of a child in the future, it's very unlikely that I'll be able to continue teaching unless whoever I am raising said hypothetical child with, has a much better paying job than mine. Or you know, if I one day decided to move to a neighborhood that's not unsafe or less than an hour and a half commute from work. That's much more likely than the baby scenario.
I wish I posted more. I think if I didn't feel like the teaching fellows program spent so many hours a day wasting my time I would be more inclined to write here. Only two/three more weeks though(two in my horrible methods of teaching class, three in my summer student teacher training site.) I'll have to write about my student teaching next time too. Maybe I'll post again soon about that. I have lots to say. Until then.
For example, right now I'm working on my unit plans for next year. I decided to start off with the 7th grade plans because those students start from scratch so I can more or less teach them what I want. They haven't learned anything yet so I don't have to worry about teaching them something they already know, with the exception of any native speakers I might have. But, what do I teach them? How much can they learn? How do I know what I should do? I am just confused. It's pretty daunting to me. I have the curriculum map that the old teacher left behind, but the order she went in is confusing to me and I don't know how to alter it without doing too much. It seems like she taught them an average of 6 things per unit, but those 6 things were spread out over two months of instruction, which is close to 16 lessons. Is that weird? Did she spend some days reviewing? I don't get what to do, I need help!
On a nice note I passed my CST, so I don't have to worry about that anymore. Annoyingly enough they sent my score report to my old apartment and I'll probably never see it again. I'm going to have to pay 10 bucks or something to have them send another one. That's what I get for being lazy. But not really, I went on the website to try to change my address about a week prior to the score posting, but it's completely unhelpful and I just don't have time in the day to call the stupid NY State teaching certification exam people, who I'm sure are only open when I'm in training anyway. Bastards.
I don't like the font that the blog gives me as standard, but I can never remember which way does look good and I'd prefer to have a uniform looking blog I think.
Oh, some people came here looking for welcoming event, so I'll just say it was about half as inspiring as it could have been. Mostly because half the time was spent listening to department talking heads saying how great it is that we are joining this noble profession. How about if instead taking the day off to tell 1700 some new semi-qualified teachers how great it is that they are joining such a noble profession, you support working teachers so they all stop quitting? I don't mean to sound ungrateful because this is probably the only way I would have become a teacher, but really, I'm still going to suck this year and probably next year and those kids are going to lose out because of it. And if, god forbid, I have some sort of a child in the future, it's very unlikely that I'll be able to continue teaching unless whoever I am raising said hypothetical child with, has a much better paying job than mine. Or you know, if I one day decided to move to a neighborhood that's not unsafe or less than an hour and a half commute from work. That's much more likely than the baby scenario.
I wish I posted more. I think if I didn't feel like the teaching fellows program spent so many hours a day wasting my time I would be more inclined to write here. Only two/three more weeks though(two in my horrible methods of teaching class, three in my summer student teacher training site.) I'll have to write about my student teaching next time too. Maybe I'll post again soon about that. I have lots to say. Until then.
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