Raging Hormones

When an English assignments brings an otherwise healthy, normal fifteen year old boy to tears, there can be but one explanation: raging hormones. No amount of consoling, comforting, or reassurance could convince my student fifth hour today that he was fully capable of completing the task assigned. We are reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and my students were asked to write a short essay summarizing the discussion had by Tom Robinson's jury during their four hour deliberation from the point of view of one of the jurors. I thought this would offer them an interesting point of view from which to examine the text, especially since we had spent the class period before delving into the Jim Crow laws that plagued the American South. I felt my students were well prepared for the assignment and that a chance to experiment with creative writing would be met with titillation not tears. Raging hormones got the best of my class today, but from here on out I will try not to be taken off guard by the tears or the drama that dictate the teenage existence. I will not let raging hormones reign!

Life Symbol

This week I assigned a project to my ninth grade students to design and explain a symbol that represents their lives. Their images ranged from butterflies to tennis shoes to basketballs, but it was the explanations of their drawings that were the most illuminating. One student, a male, drew a college logo as his symbol, but went on to explain that he used to root for another team because it was the school his father went to, but has since switched alliances because he no longer has any contact with his dad. Though I don't know the circumstance of the estrangement, this was a reminder that students come from such diverse circumstances and that their school lives are but a percentage of their life experiences.

Another student compared herself to a book, saying, like a book, a person can be misjudged by the cover and overlooked by peers when the cover isn't what they want. I thought this was particularly insightful of the student, and enlightening for me as I am continuing to get to know the now 85 students under my supervision. Each of these students has experiences outside of the classroom that greatly influence their lives inside of it, and the more I know about their whole person, the better I can serve them as their teacher. Building relationships with students is a never ending process that I look forward to undertaking over the course of my career.

Ten

When well seasoned professors who spent decades working in the education field as teachers and administrators consider your teaching a 'ten,' you know you are doing something right. I was fortunate enough to have this exact experience this week, and I could not be more grateful for the tutelage I am receiving at my new school that has so well prepared me for my future as an educator. The right mentor can make all of the difference in the world, and I am lucky to have someone I highly admire offering me encouragement and constructive criticism of my teaching. I feel like I am finally flourishing. Not only have I gotten into the groove of teaching, I really found that I have found my niche in high school English. In a perfect world, this is what I will be teaching (and being paid to do it) in seven short months!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been so busy actually teaching these last three weeks that I have hardly had the time to blog about it! I have officially taken over two classes a day, and starting tomorrow I am taking a larger role in a third. You learn so much more by doing than watching, and as such I have been overloaded with new knowledge and experiences.

Behavior management is hardly an issue in my new school, though my last class of the day could tone their attitudes down a notch or two. It is nearly impossible to quiet them, try as I might. Today we were doing a fun activity based on the key issues discussed in 'To Kill a Mockingbird', and they wouldn't quiet down long enough to listen to each other's opinions. I nearly went hoarse trying to get their attention. What finally worked holding the fact that I can make lesson plans fun or un-fun and that I could start hours of silent work time tomorrow if they can't handle interactive activities. They shut up quick. I hate to threaten my students, but sometimes that's just what works.

Anywho, things are really going swell. I am enjoying my students, the lesson planning, the grading (mostly) and all else that goes into education. Thank goodness.

If you're not enjoying it, it's probably not right for you, so I am lucky to be doing something I love.

Hard Thing

Do you know what's hard? Making grammar fun for high school freshmen. I must admit, I am not good at it yet, but that doesn't mean that I am not going to try for their sake and for mine.

For instance, today we had an epic sentence typing competition (simple sentence, compound, etc.). I thought the kids might get into it, but they did so much more than that. They got excited; they got frustrated; they got competitive.

I handed five groups a handful of independent and dependent clauses, commas, and conjunctions on brightly colored flashcards. It was their responsibility to put them in order for sentences I fed them. And, there was extra credit at risk.

Something I said or did made them get into it. It was a madhouse. They were loud and rowdy and more agitated by grammar than I have ever seen them. It was not the most structured lesson planning I've done, but something about it seemed to work. At least they got worked up!

Anyway, tomorrow they have their test on this stuff, so I will be able to see exactly what they learned and what they didn't. I am wishing them luck. 

New School

After a long hiatus, I have finally returned to the classroom with much renewed vitality. Since Tuesday, when I started at my new placement as a student teacher, I have been teaching. My new CT has already relinquished the reigns to me for two of her four classes, which is more than I could ask for. I am working with freshman English part A and B and loving every moment of it.

The students have a small town charm with a big town attitude and a dose of teenage angst and arrogance. The combination is at times endearing, surprising, or downright humorous. If you need to know something, ask a freshman because, conveniently, they know everything. I do not mean this negatively, but rather brutally honestly because more often than not these students make me laugh out loud or, sometimes, privately in my head. I am enjoying working with this population, and I believe that we will be able have some fun in class over the course of my semester.

On top of having great classes, I am working with a tremendous CT. She loves her job which makes all the difference in the world when it comes to attitude. She comes in every day loving what she gets to do, and her positive energy is infectious. Working beside her will be a delight, and learning from her will be rewarding. Overall, I cannot imagine a better placement for myself! Thank the lucky stars that sometimes life just works out.