So here's the skinny. The first semester of teaching, sucks. It's hard to come in, especially with no curriculum, and just teach. The kids are looking to take any advantage they can. As a new teacher, you're likely to flounder, and you're guaranteed to screw up at least once.
However, all that stuff is worth it when you actually get yourself figured out. When you get your classes, curriculum, discipline, and self personally and professionally, life gets so much easier, and you begin to breathe more easily. Teaching begins to come second nature, and you're left with a sense of accomplishment like no other. When you know that you are responsible for these kids and you are actually teaching them, you feel so accomplished.
Also, working on a real job matures you to a point I can't fully explain. People are always surprised when I tell them how young I am, because they think that I am much older. So your maturity level rises greatly (to say nothing of wrinkles).
Finally, looking at it from a purely selfish way, any kind of job worth having after college wants you to have a master's and two years experience. This program will give you 2 in 1, and you won't be too old by the time you graduate. That way, even if you don't decide to go on teaching, your options are a lot more than just teaching.
My classroom management plan has changed so much since the summer. I don't call kids out for not having their supplies, I don't punish kids for not raising their hands, I don't give them punishwork basically except when they say shut up or call someone stupid.
I've gotten more creative in my punishments, I just do whatever I feel is the best at the time. For example, the other day, while playing a game, I had a student call a classmate a puta. I couldn't believe it, but I didn't want to bother the office (had some problems with support), so I made him stand in the corner while we played the game. It was very effective for him personally, as long as I made him face the wall. It was hard for him, but not humiliating. It was also very affective for the class. Basically, I do what I need to when the issue comes up.
I notice a marked difference in my attitude between the days I wear heels and the days I don't.
My attitude affects my kids' attitudes.
Their attitudes affect how my day goes.
Conclusion: I need more cute flats.
Michael Phelps is incredible, and that race was amazing.
Now, it's bedtime.
Okay, I screwed up.
Went too fast, so the kids don't understand.
Now they're bored, so they cause problems, which are out of control in my 6th period.
Had a kid SNAP HIS FINGERS at me. "Boy, I know you did not just do that! I am not a waitress and I am not your servant. You will not come to my detentions like Mr. Jackson tells you to and now you have the utter gall to snap your fingers at me!?" Then I walked to the call button and buzzed the office. Also sent a kid to the office.
Now I can't let him back in my class until his mom comes to talk with me. That's going to be a tough showdown.
Signing off,
Profe
I got my first, "That woman crazy!" yesterday.
Then I got my second and my third.
I love my kids, seriously.
Seventh period, though, is going to need a hard hand.
I've had a whole lot of people drop my class because they're scared of me and/or they don't want a class as strict as mine.
I love it.
Everytime I hear this song, just for a split second, I wonder at the audacity of a band that would name itself Katrina and the Waves.
In other news, I went to school today and worked more on my classroom. It's finally looking like a real live classroom!
I'm so psyched for school. I'm nervous, but it's a good nervous. I just want to have my first day. I feel like once it's over, I'll have a much better idea of how my class will be.
Of course, I won't, but at least I'll feel better.
Here are some pictures of my classroom as it was before.
This is much much better than it was when I first got in, but still not as good as it was when I left this morning.
So, I get to write what I like in this. I shall tell you of my marvelous time at By High. Listen my children, and you shall hear.
I did not take any pictures, as my camera had no batteries, but I shall rectify that tomorrow.
I walked into my classroom, to which the janitor, Mr. Woods, was kind enough to show me. He was, by the way, wonderful to me and very on top of things. He found me almost anything I asked for, and if he couldn't get it, it wasn't for lack of trying. I think he's a bit enamored of me.
I walked into a huge pile of books and papers and desks and boards. It was awful. I stared at this piled junk in the corner and I felt my mother's genes kick in. I breathed in (not too deeply, for fear of dust) and set to work clearing the stuff away. In another hour or two I had the place set up to my specs (As Mr. Woods says) and began to sort through all of the ginormous stack of papers and notebooks that my last teacher had just left in her classroom when she cleared out. I then began to hang posters and to decide where I want to hang maps, etc.
I left my classroom for one reason or another and found Elizabeth Walton and Julia Keith. Both of whom have the potential to be one of my favorite people. We went to lunch, once I stopped thinking about my classroom and realized I was hungry. We had sushi coupled with sarcasm and followed by a stupid amount of laugher.
Then I returned to By High, where I met Mr. Jackson. I like him. I really do. I realize he might be a little too exuberent for some teachers, but I like him. I think he's going to be a good principal to work under as long as I strive to work with him and ensure that I can keep a handle on my students.
My aunt Melissa came up after she had finished her class for the day and she looked around a bit and helped me to visualize my classroom and to decide what to put where and what procedures I would put in place. She was fabulous, and I thank God that I have such great people helping me. I now have a much better idea of what would be a good and what a bad system and all about procedures that I need to put in place.
We tried to get out of there about 6:30, but Mr. Jackson kept us there until about 7:15. The man sure can talk. I like him a lot, and my aunt said that she thinks he seems a very good principal (she's definitely seen them come and go in her time), but he could talk the legs off a donkey and leave it spinning. All the things about which he talked had a great deal of import, though, so I appreciate it, and I appreciate him telling me about the school.
I have so many things left to do in my classroom in order to be prepared for the year, but I made some good progress and I'm very happy with my classroom.
One thing I wanted to mention is how talking with Aunt Lissa about teaching just suddenly made things slide into place. She talked about the need to impress upon your students that what you're doing is important, and just how important it is. I felt so much better, suddenly. It was like, all of a sudden, the world made sense. I knew why I needed to stress classroom management. What I'm doing is important, and those kids need me. Wasting their time is unacceptable, and that goes for me and them. I cannot give them shoddy lessons and a shoddy performance because that wastes their time. They cannot act a fool and give me shoddy work because that wastes my time.
It was like the sunrise. All of a sudden, I could see. It was the dark hours before the dawn, maybe a few rays of light through the clouds, but suddenly over the horizon comes a red rubber ball.
I want to keep it bright.
Well, the summer has come to a close. I have had a long and satisfying day, a day in which I felt like I had so much more purpose, so much more vision for the year to come. Going to my school yesterday and setting my classroom in place gave me so much more of a tangible thing to think about. We've been talking all summer about "your classroom in the fall." Now I have an actual classroom to put to that vague statement.
I will talk more about my classroom in my freewrite blog that I have coming up, but right now I am struggling not to spin off on tangential thoughts. I suppose the best thing to do would be to label these things good and bad and explain them.
The Good:
I loved getting teaching experience in. I feel like I've missed out on so much that so many other people haven't missed out on because they have taught in one forum or another. I think it went fast, though, my transition from Kate to Ms. Jarvis. I like this Miss. Jarvis character, but she's not someone I would ever have become without it being necessary. I appreciate that MTC pushed me quickly into that necessity and helped me to find my inner teacher.
The older teachers, second-years and TEAM, were all very very helpful They seemed to genuinely want me to succeed, and to be interested in helping me as much as possible with anything they could help me with.
The group is great. I'm so glad that I am in this program. I feel like we all have such similar experiences in the program that even though we all come from different backgrounds and cultures and regions of the country we are really close. There is nobody in the group that I do not like. After having been in groups like this one my entire life, I really appreciate the lack of cliqueiness and snipeyness.
The Bad:
Everyone's thinking it. But I'm going to say it. I really dislike the del.ici.ous posts. I would love to have it just if I happened to be on the online and I find a really good article that I want to share. That's a really good way to use it, and that's a great idea. But for the required posts, I just find myself going to education.com and skimming articles to post, because I have to post something. I don't feel that I really read or enjoy anything and I feel like it's one more stressful thing to add to an already stressful schedule.
The Ugly:
