I'm starving, but it's some sort of Jewish holiday which requires the Orthodox Jews to close their grocery store where the most excellent bagels are sold for 35 cents. It's also my birthday, which is exciting. I tried to stay out last night until midnight, but I couldn't even stay awake that long. I left the bar around 9:30 and came home and watched the season premier of the Office, which was so-so, and then went to bed by 11:30.
So now it's my birthday, which is exciting. I am going to do my laundry today finally, and once that's clean I'll be very happy. Then I don't know what I'll do. My teaching fellow friend V. is going to come out with me tonight and we're going to go somewhere and do something. I don't really care too much. I wouldn't mind using my i.d., but I hardly get carded anyway. I feel like I'd go out and try to get carded but wouldn't, and would then be annoyed at spending money that I don't have. Speaking of which, I thought I would be getting paid on Friday because I got paid two Fridays ago and that's how it usually works. Oh no. We get paid on the 1st and the 15th, even if those days fall on a Monday or a Wednesday. I thought that was annoying because I don't want to be depositing checks on a Monday, but I guess I'm technically supposed to have enrolled in direct deposit by now. Because I have TONS of free time before 4:30 to hang out at the DOE office in Brooklyn. Stupid jerks. I guess I could mail it, but I don't have any stamps.
I have lots to plan for this week, but I really don't want to do that on my birthday. Tomorrow I'm going to plan this week out and then next week, three day weekend!, I'll try to do some real planning for like a whole month or something. I also need to start typing up my lesson plans so that next year I could actually reuse them. I type some up now, but I also just sort of write the activities down on random pieces of paper which I promptly lose. So that's got to stop. I also have some projects to grade, but a lot of them were too big for my canvas bag, so I have to grade them at school, as if I ever have free time when I'm at school. Next week hopefully. Oh and I'm doing progress reports this week because At-risk letters, if you want to fail a kid their parents have to be notified in advance, go out on the 12th of October. Which I think is stupid since kids aren't allowed to turn in late homework in my class, so I don't know how much it will help. If kids have bad attitudes and don't do any work in my class, they know they're failing because I already told them. Will telling their parents change their attitude in class? I highly doubt it.
For now I'm going to relax and catch up on T.V. that I did not watch this week because I don't have television. Hooray birthdays.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Refusals
I did not do any work today when I got home from school. I left early too, to go pick up my hard drive with my recovered data. Hooray! for tekserve, the most wonderful people in the world for saving my ass and my data. I still need to submit my curriculum maps to my principal, as they were due a week ago. I was supposed to do laundry too, but the last thing I want to do when I get home from working is lug a bunch of laundry two blocks and wait around. I am running out of clothes, but hopefully I can pull through until Saturday.
Saturday's my birthday though, and who wants to do laundry on their birthday? I am seriously considering buying more underwear so I don't have to do laundry. Or maybe wearing my fancy uncomfortable underwear that only exists for non-existent romantic encounters. We'll see.
Today in honor of my birthday I made a cheap heat up dinner and ate it all. However, I neglected to remember the fact that I have been eating so differently than normal, with my modified schedule and my limited time to eat, that eating like I would usually do, i.e. gorging myself silly, makes me feel all yucky inside. The alphabet cookies didn't help. Stupid Trader Joe's with their delicious sick-inducing products.
Also, last night I had my first grad course at my university. It went a lot better than I thought, the teacher is an old Spanish fellow and she said that we'd be doing stuff that we can take and use right away. I think that'll be great because sometimes I feel like the stuff I come up with is really dull, but I also don't have the time or energy to come up with brilliant lesson plans.
Today was sort of mediocre. I kept one of my classes 15 minutes over on accident because all the classes after lunch on Wednesdays are shortened to accommodate advisory period. Advisory went ok, we were reading again and I told them they could do anything they wanted while I read as long as I didn't hear them. And they were pretty good about it. They don't want to do anything so at least this way, they can feel like they are doing what they want, I don't have to be annoyed by their ridiculous antics, and they have to listen to the stories which are actually all about being a teenager and are more or less what advisory is all about, emotional well-being of youth. I think it's a good compromise. I most of all don't want to be annoyed at the end of the day, and today I wasn't. Hurrah.
I guess that's all. As a said, today is all about relaxing. I got a lot of planning done already at school and on the subway, I just have a few things to do for Friday. I am going to do those tomorrow and get to bed by 9. I needed this rest. Also, I want to give a thumbs up to NBC for their new show Chuck. I really enjoyed watching the pilot. I never watched alias, so if it's just a rip-off of that, then that's stupid, but if it's different then I think it's awesome. Also, a thumbs down to CBS for getting rid of that show with John Ritter's son and the friend girl from Mean Girls. I really liked that show and I watched the show it got replaced by, The Big Bang Theory, and it's horrible trash. Not funny and it feels sort of like watching a play. I can't put my finger on what it is though that makes it like a play. More fall previews opinions to follow surely.
Saturday's my birthday though, and who wants to do laundry on their birthday? I am seriously considering buying more underwear so I don't have to do laundry. Or maybe wearing my fancy uncomfortable underwear that only exists for non-existent romantic encounters. We'll see.
Today in honor of my birthday I made a cheap heat up dinner and ate it all. However, I neglected to remember the fact that I have been eating so differently than normal, with my modified schedule and my limited time to eat, that eating like I would usually do, i.e. gorging myself silly, makes me feel all yucky inside. The alphabet cookies didn't help. Stupid Trader Joe's with their delicious sick-inducing products.
Also, last night I had my first grad course at my university. It went a lot better than I thought, the teacher is an old Spanish fellow and she said that we'd be doing stuff that we can take and use right away. I think that'll be great because sometimes I feel like the stuff I come up with is really dull, but I also don't have the time or energy to come up with brilliant lesson plans.
Today was sort of mediocre. I kept one of my classes 15 minutes over on accident because all the classes after lunch on Wednesdays are shortened to accommodate advisory period. Advisory went ok, we were reading again and I told them they could do anything they wanted while I read as long as I didn't hear them. And they were pretty good about it. They don't want to do anything so at least this way, they can feel like they are doing what they want, I don't have to be annoyed by their ridiculous antics, and they have to listen to the stories which are actually all about being a teenager and are more or less what advisory is all about, emotional well-being of youth. I think it's a good compromise. I most of all don't want to be annoyed at the end of the day, and today I wasn't. Hurrah.
I guess that's all. As a said, today is all about relaxing. I got a lot of planning done already at school and on the subway, I just have a few things to do for Friday. I am going to do those tomorrow and get to bed by 9. I needed this rest. Also, I want to give a thumbs up to NBC for their new show Chuck. I really enjoyed watching the pilot. I never watched alias, so if it's just a rip-off of that, then that's stupid, but if it's different then I think it's awesome. Also, a thumbs down to CBS for getting rid of that show with John Ritter's son and the friend girl from Mean Girls. I really liked that show and I watched the show it got replaced by, The Big Bang Theory, and it's horrible trash. Not funny and it feels sort of like watching a play. I can't put my finger on what it is though that makes it like a play. More fall previews opinions to follow surely.
Monday, September 24, 2007
An excellent day
Today was the best day ever. I saw my two worst classes with the TWO worst kids I've mentioned before, anger management Marsha and the boy who has walked out of my advisory two out of three classes. They were both good if not excellent. I also had another girl who has been very hostile and disinterested the whole time and today she raised her hand for almost every question. She speaks Spanish with her family, so maybe now that we are getting into the Spanish she'll be excited to show off. Who the hell knows. Anger management Marsha was exceptionally attentive and even participated. I moved the boy who she hit last week to a different desk, and the girls she always chats with was absent. I was so impressed with her behavior. When I raised my hand and started timing, which is what I do when I want their attention, she even told other kids to shut up and pay attention to me. It was such a wonderful outlet for her rage! I told her as she left that she did a really awesome job.
Also, my principal came into my room while I was teaching and said she needed to talk to me on my next prep period. I was for sure convinced I would be fired, for what I didn't know, but I'm a worrier. She brought up the consequence papers, which she hates, and I just said flat out "I got rid of them." After that she seemed to really turn around. She seemed much happier and nicer. She still didn't tell me anything that would be a good idea, instead telling me that she didn't like my hagan ahora(aka do now, standard NYC public school warm-up activity.) Wait, that's not true, she did give me a suggestion to change my hagan ahora. So all in all not bad, especially since I didn't get fired like I thought. I still didn't get to do my laundry, so that's depressing. But my birthday is on Saturday, so I am psyched none the less!
Also, my principal came into my room while I was teaching and said she needed to talk to me on my next prep period. I was for sure convinced I would be fired, for what I didn't know, but I'm a worrier. She brought up the consequence papers, which she hates, and I just said flat out "I got rid of them." After that she seemed to really turn around. She seemed much happier and nicer. She still didn't tell me anything that would be a good idea, instead telling me that she didn't like my hagan ahora(aka do now, standard NYC public school warm-up activity.) Wait, that's not true, she did give me a suggestion to change my hagan ahora. So all in all not bad, especially since I didn't get fired like I thought. I still didn't get to do my laundry, so that's depressing. But my birthday is on Saturday, so I am psyched none the less!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Tragic events etc.
My computer died last weekend, so I have not been able to post much at all. It was a most depressing week without my computer. I waited with bated breath for any news about the hard drive. First, I took the computer to the apple store. They couldn't fix it right away, but I bought a new computer, which is awesome, and they took both the new and old computer and tried to do some fancier process. They called me the next day and said it hadn't worked and that I should try taking my computer to a place called tekserve, who might be able to do "data recovery." I dropped my old computer off there on Thursday, paid them 250 dollars for the process, 110 dollars for an external hard drive to hopefully put the recovered data onto, and some tax for a grand total of 380 dollars. If the data can't be recovered, they'll give me my money back, but I'd rather pay lots of money and get all my stuff back. My photos from when I lived in Europe, my music, ALL MY TEACHING STUFF, everything that I have in this world is on there. I should know sometime this week.
This week at school was kind of crappy too. A girl called me a bitch and I sent her to the office and a boy, the same one who always gives me trouble, walked out of my advisory. He also called me stuck-up and told me that nobody at school really likes me. Then, the parents of a boy who had been working with the girl who called me a bitch (anger management marsha she shall now be called) sent me a nasty e-mail about how their precious child should never have been in a group with anger management marsha in the first place. Just yucky school week.
And last night, I woke up in the middle of the night for some reason. When I walked to the bathroom I noticed that the book I usually keep on top of the fishbowl to protect the fish had been knocked down. I looked inside the bowl and he was nowhere to be found. I lifted up his little castle to see if he was hiding inside, but nothing. I found his cold dead little body on the floor, and I'm quite convinced that my roommate's cat murdered him as I slept. I was very sad and cried a lot. I just felt so bad for not being able to protect him. I must have been sound asleep, because usually I am a very light sleeper but the cat had to knock two books down to get to the bowl and it didn't wake me.
I also think my principal hates me now. I can't really tell. I want to do better, but I don't know what it is that's bothering her about me. I know she hates these consequence papers I've been using, which I've found to be affective in some situations. I mentioned to her that I could change it a little bit, but she told me it just doesn't go with the school's philosophy. I would ask her if she has a better way to give students an outlet for their perspective on the misbehavior, but she seemed almost mad at me for having the consequence papers at all. She could stand to be more supportive of me. I don't think that having a consequence paper is such a huge mistake to say that I could never be a good teacher, which is the feeling I get from her. I got the idea from my adviser at the fellowship program, so I feel almost insulted that she's acting like because I had this idea I am an awful teacher. I hope it gets better because it's really hard for me to work in an environment where I want to avoid my boss at all costs. I want her to provide ideas for things I SHOULD do, not just come in my room and tell me things she doesn't like.
I guess that's all I've got for now. I should go and finish cleaning my apartment so I can start planning for next week. I'm going to a small party at my teaching fellow friend V.'s apartment tonight, so I know I wont be waking up very early tomorrow. I was supposed to do my laundry today too. Yikes!
This week at school was kind of crappy too. A girl called me a bitch and I sent her to the office and a boy, the same one who always gives me trouble, walked out of my advisory. He also called me stuck-up and told me that nobody at school really likes me. Then, the parents of a boy who had been working with the girl who called me a bitch (anger management marsha she shall now be called) sent me a nasty e-mail about how their precious child should never have been in a group with anger management marsha in the first place. Just yucky school week.
And last night, I woke up in the middle of the night for some reason. When I walked to the bathroom I noticed that the book I usually keep on top of the fishbowl to protect the fish had been knocked down. I looked inside the bowl and he was nowhere to be found. I lifted up his little castle to see if he was hiding inside, but nothing. I found his cold dead little body on the floor, and I'm quite convinced that my roommate's cat murdered him as I slept. I was very sad and cried a lot. I just felt so bad for not being able to protect him. I must have been sound asleep, because usually I am a very light sleeper but the cat had to knock two books down to get to the bowl and it didn't wake me.
I also think my principal hates me now. I can't really tell. I want to do better, but I don't know what it is that's bothering her about me. I know she hates these consequence papers I've been using, which I've found to be affective in some situations. I mentioned to her that I could change it a little bit, but she told me it just doesn't go with the school's philosophy. I would ask her if she has a better way to give students an outlet for their perspective on the misbehavior, but she seemed almost mad at me for having the consequence papers at all. She could stand to be more supportive of me. I don't think that having a consequence paper is such a huge mistake to say that I could never be a good teacher, which is the feeling I get from her. I got the idea from my adviser at the fellowship program, so I feel almost insulted that she's acting like because I had this idea I am an awful teacher. I hope it gets better because it's really hard for me to work in an environment where I want to avoid my boss at all costs. I want her to provide ideas for things I SHOULD do, not just come in my room and tell me things she doesn't like.
I guess that's all I've got for now. I should go and finish cleaning my apartment so I can start planning for next week. I'm going to a small party at my teaching fellow friend V.'s apartment tonight, so I know I wont be waking up very early tomorrow. I was supposed to do my laundry today too. Yikes!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Shopping
I went shopping most of yesterday. I bought some more teacher clothes. For more or less all of my life I have been in school. I've been a student for so long that I didn't even notice that I had no non-super casual clothes whatsoever. T-shirts and jeans are the extent of my wardrobe, so I ran out of outfits right quick last week. It's especially hard at my school because I see my classes only twice a week, so I can never remember when I saw a particular class last not to mention what I was wearing at that time. My mom teaches college so she has a similar issue and I remember how badly we teased her when she started writing down what she wore each day so she wouldn't wear the same thing to the same class. Now I think it's a pretty good idea. I bought two pairs of teacher pants and two nice long sleeve shirts. I also got a tank top to wear underneath teacher shirts and a pair of jeans for jeans friday. I am a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl, but my jeans are much too casual. I also always top my jeans off with a very business like shirt, so as not to appear too childish.
I think my students know I'm really young though, unfortunately. At least the eighth graders do. One of my seventh graders last week asked me if any of my classes had ever gotten a 90% class average before, because that's one of our big goals as a class. I almost burst out laughing right then and there. I sort of sidestepped the question by telling him that I had never set the goal that high before, which is technically true, but I've also never had any students before to set goals for, which I conveniently forgot to mention. Seventh graders are so sweet and eighth graders are so mean and nasty. What a horrible time for people.
I can't believe I STILL have two more days of freedom before work starts. Four day weekends are amazing. Today I might do some laundry and go grocery shopping. I also need to buy shoes and a flashdrive so I can do my grading at school and at home. Plus floss, allergy medication, and face scrubbing things from Trader Joe's. I may have to take back one of the pairs of pants I bought yesterday, depending on how much those items cost. I did get payed a lot more than I thought I would, but still not very much.
Right now I might take a nap though. I went out last night for just a little bit with my teaching fellow friend V. She's the best person ever and she's from New Jersey so she has a lot of friends here already who are really cool. We went to her friend's birthday party, which was a little weird because it was a pretty small gathering and I felt a little intrusive, but her friends were really nice and I think they all liked me enough. V promised to hang out with me on my birthday, which is good. I told her I didn't want to do anything like a special my birthday thing. I just want to hang out somewhere cool and have fun. I don't like doing things that are organized around my birthday though, it puts a weird pressure on me and I also don't like the idea of being rejected by many people on my birthday. When you have something for your birthday, then anyone who doesn't come probably hates you and anyone who only knows you sort of feels awkward coming because they don't want to intrude on someone's birthday. So I'd rather just go out and have a good time and have it happen to be my birthday then doing something specifically organized for my birthday.
What a long and rambling post. That's what you get for four day weekends.
I think my students know I'm really young though, unfortunately. At least the eighth graders do. One of my seventh graders last week asked me if any of my classes had ever gotten a 90% class average before, because that's one of our big goals as a class. I almost burst out laughing right then and there. I sort of sidestepped the question by telling him that I had never set the goal that high before, which is technically true, but I've also never had any students before to set goals for, which I conveniently forgot to mention. Seventh graders are so sweet and eighth graders are so mean and nasty. What a horrible time for people.
I can't believe I STILL have two more days of freedom before work starts. Four day weekends are amazing. Today I might do some laundry and go grocery shopping. I also need to buy shoes and a flashdrive so I can do my grading at school and at home. Plus floss, allergy medication, and face scrubbing things from Trader Joe's. I may have to take back one of the pairs of pants I bought yesterday, depending on how much those items cost. I did get payed a lot more than I thought I would, but still not very much.
Right now I might take a nap though. I went out last night for just a little bit with my teaching fellow friend V. She's the best person ever and she's from New Jersey so she has a lot of friends here already who are really cool. We went to her friend's birthday party, which was a little weird because it was a pretty small gathering and I felt a little intrusive, but her friends were really nice and I think they all liked me enough. V promised to hang out with me on my birthday, which is good. I told her I didn't want to do anything like a special my birthday thing. I just want to hang out somewhere cool and have fun. I don't like doing things that are organized around my birthday though, it puts a weird pressure on me and I also don't like the idea of being rejected by many people on my birthday. When you have something for your birthday, then anyone who doesn't come probably hates you and anyone who only knows you sort of feels awkward coming because they don't want to intrude on someone's birthday. So I'd rather just go out and have a good time and have it happen to be my birthday then doing something specifically organized for my birthday.
What a long and rambling post. That's what you get for four day weekends.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Worst apartment ever
So, somehow I managed to rent the worst apartment ever. My landlord is remarkably bad. We had a leak for over two months which caused a lot of water damage and paint peeling. I was visiting his office almost every week asking him to come repair it and he always told me the guy was coming and then he never did. We noticed the leak the day we moved, in June, and it wasn't fixed until mid august. I'm really worried now that we are going to get money taken out of our security deposit.
Now the dishwasher is broken and he has said two times in two days that someone would be coming tomorrow, but it doesn't happen. And now it's Rosh Hashanah and he won't answer any of his phones. I went down and talked to some lady and she said he would be back in an hour, but she tried to blow me off first. I hate this apartment and I want to move out. My roommate is annoying too, which definitely doesn't help the cause.
Ugh, I don't want to think about it anymore. This is my four day weekend from my new stressful job and I can't even enjoy it because this guy couldn't just get it fixed on Monday or Tuesday OR Wednesday. And it actually broke last Friday but you can't reach him after like 3:30 on Fridays. What kind of landlord is never available? I don't quite understand what he does if not this kind of stuff.
I had a yucky school day on Wednesday. It started off well, but then we ended with advisory and that's the worst thing in the world. It makes everyone want to kill themselves, teachers and students included. School is going really well, except for advisory. I don't know what to do about it. I talk to lots of other teachers and no one really likes advisory, but nobody has the problems I have either. The kids are just big assholes in that class. I also have a really bad group. Almost none of the kids in advisory are good in their other classes either. Granted, they're not as bad as they are in advisory, but they still suck.
I am very hungry and I want to take a nap. The good news is that my check came yesterday and it was much more than I had thought it would be. I have no idea what amount of money I'm getting paid, but I thought it was going to be about 300 dollars less, so I'm psyched. I still need to go to the bank and deposit it, but I am doing all this annoying apartment stuff all day so I probably wont get to it. I wish my roommate would go away, she's awful. Hopefully my four day weekend will get better soon. I'm going to buy some music in a little bit and maybe go out to dinner somewhere I haven't been since I had money. Vacations!
Now the dishwasher is broken and he has said two times in two days that someone would be coming tomorrow, but it doesn't happen. And now it's Rosh Hashanah and he won't answer any of his phones. I went down and talked to some lady and she said he would be back in an hour, but she tried to blow me off first. I hate this apartment and I want to move out. My roommate is annoying too, which definitely doesn't help the cause.
Ugh, I don't want to think about it anymore. This is my four day weekend from my new stressful job and I can't even enjoy it because this guy couldn't just get it fixed on Monday or Tuesday OR Wednesday. And it actually broke last Friday but you can't reach him after like 3:30 on Fridays. What kind of landlord is never available? I don't quite understand what he does if not this kind of stuff.
I had a yucky school day on Wednesday. It started off well, but then we ended with advisory and that's the worst thing in the world. It makes everyone want to kill themselves, teachers and students included. School is going really well, except for advisory. I don't know what to do about it. I talk to lots of other teachers and no one really likes advisory, but nobody has the problems I have either. The kids are just big assholes in that class. I also have a really bad group. Almost none of the kids in advisory are good in their other classes either. Granted, they're not as bad as they are in advisory, but they still suck.
I am very hungry and I want to take a nap. The good news is that my check came yesterday and it was much more than I had thought it would be. I have no idea what amount of money I'm getting paid, but I thought it was going to be about 300 dollars less, so I'm psyched. I still need to go to the bank and deposit it, but I am doing all this annoying apartment stuff all day so I probably wont get to it. I wish my roommate would go away, she's awful. Hopefully my four day weekend will get better soon. I'm going to buy some music in a little bit and maybe go out to dinner somewhere I haven't been since I had money. Vacations!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Diagnostics
I just finished looking over the first set of eighth grade diagnostics I gave. Ridiculous. These students don't know ANY of what the teacher said she taught them. I don't understand what the hell happened. Did she lie about it? Most of the kids had really good grades last year, and they were not even close to where they would be if they really learned all the things they were supposed to have learned. Can summer erase so much? I am going to have to review all of the grammatical points there are, and possibly just teach them all again. I don't have that much time! These kids are supposed to be really smart! I can't figure out what happened. I know the kids aren't dumb, but I KNOW they don't know what they "learned" last year. I can't believe this. All the planning for the year I did is going to have to be totally pushed back. I was worried that I wouldn't have ENOUGH to teach, looks like I might as well just teach the seventh and eighth graders the same thing and not waste my time.
Things are going to be different. These students are going to be able to pass that fucking proficiency exam. I didn't really give a shit before because they're smart kids and they're all going to good schools and colleges whether they learn Spanish or not. But now, if I can't get these geniuses to learn Spanish, then I wont keep teaching. I'm slightly outraged. I also have to talk about a little shithead student soon, but right now I don't feel like it. He thinks he's smarter than me/everyone and I would like very much to kick his ass.
Things are going to be different. These students are going to be able to pass that fucking proficiency exam. I didn't really give a shit before because they're smart kids and they're all going to good schools and colleges whether they learn Spanish or not. But now, if I can't get these geniuses to learn Spanish, then I wont keep teaching. I'm slightly outraged. I also have to talk about a little shithead student soon, but right now I don't feel like it. He thinks he's smarter than me/everyone and I would like very much to kick his ass.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Exhaustion
This week was so long. I feel like I spent every minute of my day teaching. I stayed after school everyday, the earliest I left was 5:30. Except for yesterday. We had a barbecue for the staff of our school with the staff of the school we share a building with. It was nice. I think the principals wanted us to mingle, but there wasn't too much to say to the other staff. They're elementary teachers so I was like meh. I think also that it's too close to the beginning of the year to have a group barbecue. I feel like I want to get to know my co-workers a lot better so I spent most of the barbecue talking with other people from my school. Also, there are seven new teachers out of about 20, so a lot of people have a lot of mingling to do within their own schools.
On the plus side, I really did get to know my co-workers a lot better. Mostly just the ones who are young and single and don't have families. We spent a little time at the barbecue but then we went out for drinks afterwards with a lot of people who didn't have familial obligations. And that was awesome. I was SO tired yesterday, but I ended up not getting home until midnight. I talked a lot with the art teacher, the drama teacher, the 6th grade math teacher, and the new 8th grade humanities teacher. The art teacher, who I love and is next door to me and is amazing, gave me a lot of kid gossip which was really funny, like who's dating who and who's annoying and lazy and who's really good if you get to know them. She also told me who are the hott parents, which I'm pretty excited to see, and who are the annoying parents. A lot of the stuff she said really surprised me, as far as who are lazy and annoying. Some of it I already knew.
After drinks art teacher and I went out for dinner at a restaurant and rode a bus for a bit. I was really glad to hang out with her. She seems pretty awesome. Last year was her first year so she knows a lot of stuff about the current eighth graders, but she also remembers what kind of stuff you want/need to know when you are a new teacher. The humanities teacher guy is awesome too, I ate lunch with him one of the professional development august days. I think it will be really helpful to have him around too, because he sees only half of the eighth graders two times a day, so he'll get to know that half really well. He's already helped me design a seating chart for one of my classes and told me some stuff that he's done that works.
Also, over drinks my age came up. Many people found this fascinating/hilarious/incredible. It was kind of fun. I showed them all my fake i.d., which will be obsolete in exactly TWO weeks. I'm kind of sad my birthday is at the beginning of the year, since I feel like I probably wont be relaxed and comfortable with my job until at LEAST January. Everyone was really nice though and didn't get uncomfortable with me being 20, so I'm glad. I am so happy with my school. The other teachers are incredible and classes are even pretty fun. I don't necessarily enjoy every minute of teaching yet, or think it's the most incredible rewarding thing ever. I think that once I can get out of survival mode, where I am making all of my plans and materials the night before, and I can sort of relax and deviate from the plan every once in a while, that I'll start to really love teaching and doing my job. It will also help in that I wont spend 10 hours a day at school with another 2 hours at home doing work. Overall, this week was fantastic and I'm excited for the my three day week coming up!!!
On the plus side, I really did get to know my co-workers a lot better. Mostly just the ones who are young and single and don't have families. We spent a little time at the barbecue but then we went out for drinks afterwards with a lot of people who didn't have familial obligations. And that was awesome. I was SO tired yesterday, but I ended up not getting home until midnight. I talked a lot with the art teacher, the drama teacher, the 6th grade math teacher, and the new 8th grade humanities teacher. The art teacher, who I love and is next door to me and is amazing, gave me a lot of kid gossip which was really funny, like who's dating who and who's annoying and lazy and who's really good if you get to know them. She also told me who are the hott parents, which I'm pretty excited to see, and who are the annoying parents. A lot of the stuff she said really surprised me, as far as who are lazy and annoying. Some of it I already knew.
After drinks art teacher and I went out for dinner at a restaurant and rode a bus for a bit. I was really glad to hang out with her. She seems pretty awesome. Last year was her first year so she knows a lot of stuff about the current eighth graders, but she also remembers what kind of stuff you want/need to know when you are a new teacher. The humanities teacher guy is awesome too, I ate lunch with him one of the professional development august days. I think it will be really helpful to have him around too, because he sees only half of the eighth graders two times a day, so he'll get to know that half really well. He's already helped me design a seating chart for one of my classes and told me some stuff that he's done that works.
Also, over drinks my age came up. Many people found this fascinating/hilarious/incredible. It was kind of fun. I showed them all my fake i.d., which will be obsolete in exactly TWO weeks. I'm kind of sad my birthday is at the beginning of the year, since I feel like I probably wont be relaxed and comfortable with my job until at LEAST January. Everyone was really nice though and didn't get uncomfortable with me being 20, so I'm glad. I am so happy with my school. The other teachers are incredible and classes are even pretty fun. I don't necessarily enjoy every minute of teaching yet, or think it's the most incredible rewarding thing ever. I think that once I can get out of survival mode, where I am making all of my plans and materials the night before, and I can sort of relax and deviate from the plan every once in a while, that I'll start to really love teaching and doing my job. It will also help in that I wont spend 10 hours a day at school with another 2 hours at home doing work. Overall, this week was fantastic and I'm excited for the my three day week coming up!!!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
FIRST DAY!
Teaching is extremely hard. I worked for fourteen hours today. Literally. I was at school for eleven hours and I did another three on the subway home and once I got back to the apartment. I cannot believe the amount of work I did today. I think everyone should have to teach school before they can go to school. All students would be 1000% better.
My day was good. If I had written this post at 12:00 instead of right now I would have had a completely different attitude. Before lunch I had two eighth grade classes and I thought I was going to die. They were SO loud. I could quiet them down for approximately two minutes and then they were talking over me again. Actually two minutes is way too much, more like maybe one. I've decided I'm going to try a system where the classes can get free choice time if they quite down in a certain amount of time. I wanted to make them stay late if they wasted time, but I'm not allowed to do that because the stupid school system wants them to grow up as coddled little babies. Dumb school system.
There are already a few kids who I know are going to be awesome and a few I know are going to be trouble. I had to talk to two(eighth grade) students after class already! On the FIRST day! But there are a lot of kids who are going to be amazing and so I really want to stick it out for them. I talked to the art teacher who is next door to me and she says she teaches eighth graders, but she lives for the seventh graders. It looks like that might be the case for me too. At least with the first two sections I met. I have a chance to keep the other two sections strong, so maybe I can do better. I have to go back again tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep. This weekend will see more posting, since I will not be spending 11 hours at my school. Goodnight!
My day was good. If I had written this post at 12:00 instead of right now I would have had a completely different attitude. Before lunch I had two eighth grade classes and I thought I was going to die. They were SO loud. I could quiet them down for approximately two minutes and then they were talking over me again. Actually two minutes is way too much, more like maybe one. I've decided I'm going to try a system where the classes can get free choice time if they quite down in a certain amount of time. I wanted to make them stay late if they wasted time, but I'm not allowed to do that because the stupid school system wants them to grow up as coddled little babies. Dumb school system.
There are already a few kids who I know are going to be awesome and a few I know are going to be trouble. I had to talk to two(eighth grade) students after class already! On the FIRST day! But there are a lot of kids who are going to be amazing and so I really want to stick it out for them. I talked to the art teacher who is next door to me and she says she teaches eighth graders, but she lives for the seventh graders. It looks like that might be the case for me too. At least with the first two sections I met. I have a chance to keep the other two sections strong, so maybe I can do better. I have to go back again tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep. This weekend will see more posting, since I will not be spending 11 hours at my school. Goodnight!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Some pictures
This is my big goals area. I have decided to aim for every class getting a 90% or higher average on all assessments. This is absolutely manageable with my students because they are all totally brilliant. The challenge of the big goal is motivating them to do it. I think it can be done.
This is my back wall. I've got one side with cultural/geography posters and another side with more vocabulary/grammar stuff. In front of the bulletin boards is where I keep various class books and dictionaries.
This is my wh
ite-board. I have bad white-board handwriting, which makes me very self-conscious. I'll add some more pictures later because it is a pain in the ass to do, so I'm going to go to sleep early now and get up early so as not to be too tired on my very first day. Only one day left! Holy crap.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
My school is amazing
I went in Thursday and Friday for the first school function. I have to say, being at school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday was really great and I'm glad I got to set up my room, but I was getting a little overwhelmed and freaked out. I spent around 6 hours a day in my room the first part of my week with no breaks, just working on the room and doing stuff to it. I definitely started feeling overwhelmed by the thought of teaching and doing this whole thing and that I am totally crazy and what was I thinking I'm not ready to do this. Then Thursday and Friday I met all the other teachers and it was such a relief. Everyone at my school is amazing and I feel so supported. Meeting everyone has sort of given me a huge confidence boost as far as what I'm doing. All of our other teachers are totally great, except for the gym teacher who is a little weird socially. The other staff makes me feel like a better teacher just by being around them. I can not even begin to explain how fantastic it is to work with a group of people who are masters of their jobs. I think this school is going to be so beneficial to me as a teacher and that I'll be hundreds of times better just by working there.
There are a bunch of new teachers at my school this year, which is really nice too. The veteran staff are all fantastic, but it's nice to have other people who are sort of just getting the hang of this thing too. A few of the new people have already been teaching elsewhere for a while, but there are at least four of us who are brand new. Two of the brand new teachers did their student teaching at the school and then there are two of us who are brand new teaching fellows. We also have a new teacher who was a teaching fellow a few years ago, so it's nice to have someone whose been through our experience there. I think there are other ex-teaching fellows at the school too. I don't remember how many though.
My room looks amazing, and I'm going to try and post some pictures soon, if I can make that happen. We'll see. I have a lot of planning to do this weekend, as well as shoe, pant, and bag purchasing. I think this next week is going to be awesome, as well as this next year. It's so reassuring to know that not only am I not in this alone, but I have amazing talented teachers to back me up if I get lost. I think this year is going to be pretty good. Tuesday is the big day!
There are a bunch of new teachers at my school this year, which is really nice too. The veteran staff are all fantastic, but it's nice to have other people who are sort of just getting the hang of this thing too. A few of the new people have already been teaching elsewhere for a while, but there are at least four of us who are brand new. Two of the brand new teachers did their student teaching at the school and then there are two of us who are brand new teaching fellows. We also have a new teacher who was a teaching fellow a few years ago, so it's nice to have someone whose been through our experience there. I think there are other ex-teaching fellows at the school too. I don't remember how many though.
My room looks amazing, and I'm going to try and post some pictures soon, if I can make that happen. We'll see. I have a lot of planning to do this weekend, as well as shoe, pant, and bag purchasing. I think this next week is going to be awesome, as well as this next year. It's so reassuring to know that not only am I not in this alone, but I have amazing talented teachers to back me up if I get lost. I think this year is going to be pretty good. Tuesday is the big day!
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