Last Day

Today was my last day of student teaching. My host teacher took back the class yesterday with the start of a new unit. She expressed great sorrow at my departure and will be writing me a reference letter to add to my credential file.

Now I have the weekend to pound out some schoolwork of my own before returning to work on Monday. I will be returning to an office that has gone through a system upgrade that I am not familiar with and to an additional eight or so temporary staff that were hired for me in my absence. I don't relish the idea of supervising an entire staff that knows more about the new process than I do.

I am, however, thrilled to be able to start using my big purse again. Since I didn't want to have it in the classroom with me, I've been constantly without some essential item that would've been in it if only I'd had it with me. Money, credit cards, chapstick, the essentials that never made it into my school bag after the weekend. No more hassles of that nature at least.

Another Day in Paradise

Yesterday my host teacher was grabbed hard on the arm and then shoved into a door frame by a student in my class. I had to fill out an incident report as a witness.

Today I learned that one of the students from the school stabbed someone on the bus (they ride public buses to and from school).

Currently I have three students suspended from one class.

I also had only three students pass the test I gave yesterday.

Two more weeks to go!

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

In case you've been wondering if I'm still around, why yes, I am. I am having a bit of a rough patch though. Up until yesterday I'd thought my biggest challenge was surviving this student teaching experience. I was just thinking I could see a hint of light at the end of the tunnel (three weeks to go and counting). And then my hateful supervisor once again did her best to imply I'm thoroughly incompetent. Not once has she offered a single helpful suggestion. She has, however, misinterpreted every single thing I say, twisting my words and using them against me (and putting it in my permanent file, no less). I'm beginning to fear that she may actually prevent me from passing the student teaching portion of my program. If I get to the end and find I've done this all for nothing, I can't even begin to imagine how I'll deal with the situation.

I'm not saying I'm the best student teacher. I am saying that every day, I do my best. I deserve to pass. I don't deserve a teacher-of-the-year award, but I deserve to pass.

On a somewhat related note, a second classmate of mine dropped out of student teaching. Now we're down to four people. Why am I the only person that finds this troublesome?

A Different World

When I was in high school we had a series of bomb threats. They were taken very, very seriously. Yesterday there were two such threats at the school. I saw no additional police (beyond the ones that are stationed at the school permanently) and no fire trucks. If they searched the school at all, they must have superpowers to have done it in the 10 minutes we stood on the football field while the students ripped cigarettes. I feel safe. Not.

This week happens to be spirit week, which apparently is in short supply among the student body. I saw only a handful of students participating in today's theme (college t-shirt day), while most, if not all, of the teachers proudly sported a variety of athletic wear.

When looking at a crowd of the students there is no way I could mistake them for my former classmates. The clothing, the electronics, the foul language, it's all so different. Today, however, I encountered a boy that could've been straight out of my high school in the early 90s. Hair buzzed fairly short except for one swinging swath of bleach-blond hair flopping across his face. Ah, those were the days...

Tomorrow will be fun

Tomorrow my host teacher will not be at school. She is attending an out-of-town conference. There will be a sub, of course, but the classes will be mine (including the one I never teach). She has told me that I can and should write up anyone that gives me crap. This kinda surprised me considering the one time I tried to write someone* up she said she'd take care of it. He was neither written up nor was he forced to comply with my request. Talk about thoroughly eliminating any possibility the students might take me seriously. I just wish it wasn't a double-block day tomorrow (I wish that same thing every other day when it rolls around again). I just keep telling myself, make it through tomorrow and you've got a three day weekend. Wheee.

*Someone is currently suspended and therefore should not be in class tomorrow to torment me. Although there are plenty of other likely someones.

It's only 5 years old.

Student: Is this really you? [Like several others, this student has expressed repeated interest in my college ID which I wear around my neck*.]

Me: It is. [Why else would I be wearing it, you little fool?]

Student: Then you need to fix your hair and get some glasses**. [Score: student 1, teacher 0.]



* Not my idea. The school requires it.
** I was broke at the time the photo was taken and couldn't afford contacts.

At least tomorrow is Friday.

• My mind is too full (and my body is too tired) to manage more than bullets.
• Student teaching is going as well as can be expected. It's not funny anymore. It's just annoying. These kids won't even complete a word search.
  
• I find it bothersome to also have class at the same time. It's too much.
• Sometimes I wish I'd decided to pursue my degree at another institution of higher learning.
• Last night was one of those nights. I don't think making an entire cohort of second year master's students feel like stupid, worthless idiots is the best route to take. Me thinks if every one of us fails to meet your expectations, you may be partly to blame.
  
• I finally got around to picking up after Ike. I filled three garbage cans with downed branches. The rest will have to wait.
• It may frost tonight.
  
• I may close the bedroom window for the first time since spring.
• It's amazing how many pairs of really uncomfortable shoes I own. I rotate them so a different part of my feet hurt each day. I'm beginning to think comfortable shoes do not exist outside of sneakers or flip flops.
• Don't worry, I still want to be a teacher. I just may have to consume a great deal of chocolate.
  

Stress Dreams

In times of stress I typically have two forms of what I refer to as "stress dreams." Chase dreams involve someone trying to catch me and hurt/kill me. I am running, driving, crawling, trying desperately to stay one step ahead. The other type is usually work-related and takes place in a particularly stressful environment. I used to have these dreams when I work retail during the holidays. It would just be person after person after person demanding my attention. I had dreams that felt similar at the office only it was piles o' crap that needed my attention. Never-ending piles. Well, last night I had my first of the second variety with regards to my current student teaching situation. The entire dream consisted of:

"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"

Finding a Balance

I can see already that there are going to be entertaining tales I wish to share. Now I just need to figure out how I can do so in an appropriate manner. Until I find that balance I will have to refrain from talking about the student that was removed from class and sent home due to his state of highness. Or the other student that finally wore a shirt that covered her extensive cleavage.

I will, however, tell you about my moment of fear as I walked to my car after school. Between me and my car were two free-ranging, unattended pitt bulls. Now you all know that I am a dog person, but what you perhaps don't know is that as a toddler I was bitten on the face by a dalmatian. This has made me (understandably) wary of unknown, large dogs. Especially of the pitt bull/rottweiler variety. Fortunately for me, as I approached the dogs I observed several students in the area were unmolested by the dogs, so I forged ahead. Upon closer examination, they were both collared and the female was quite friendly. She came trotting right up to me, wagging her tail and requesting attention. I spoke to her in a kindly fashion but declined to pet her. She followed me temporarily until she realized her pal was less interested in my presence and she went to join him. I couldn't help but notice that he was still fully entact in the male arena, which makes it seem even more irresponsible of the owners to let them roam free. At least the cars near the school were driving slowly enough to notice the pitt bulls when they trotted out into the street. I just hope they stayed away from the busier, four-lane road around the corner and that they eventually returned home.

I also kind of hope they aren't hanging around again tomorrow afternoon.

First Week

The first week was boring but educational. Now I know what to expect during the days before school starts- meetings, more meetings, and yet more meetings. After two days of that I was anxious for the students to arrive, but that just meant two more days of filling out index cards and going over the syllabus. So in a way, I still haven't seen a single typical day in this school. Somehow I doubt Monday will qualify either.

I lucked out and got placed with a host teacher that has a window in her classroom, a rarity in this school. She has fish and a tortoise but no plants. I will definitely have plants in my classroom, especially if I have a great big window.

I'm not sure how much blogging I will do about my student teaching. Nor do I know how much time I will have for blogging in general, so bear with me. I will still be reading your blogs when I can.

Alga Dancing

My classes had been getting so bogged down with theories, accommodations, and strategies that I was starting to forget why I'd wanted to be a teacher in the first place. Today in class we did an activity on different ways to teach vocabulary. My partner and I had zipped through the exercise, and I was standing around in an effort to stretch my chair-weary legs (four and half hours of class is a lot of sitting).

The group next to me was struggling with how to get their imaginary students to remember the word algorithm. I immediately started doing a little dance. When I explained that I was an alga dancing because dancing requires rhythm I got two blank stares. You know, an alga with rhythm? Alga-rhythm? Imagine I was wearing all green? Nothing. Fine. I went back to bouncing around and stretching my legs and wondering how they could not see the connection. They spent another few minutes trying to come up with something. Finally I asked them what an algorithm was, and they launched into a definition of the steps for a math problem (yada, yada, yada). So I demonstrated, again, my example of an alga dancing, but this time I did the waltz and counted out loud. One. Two. Three. STEPS. Now they no longer thought it was stupid (and yes, that was the word that was used to describe my idea) and even used it as their example when they presented to the class. Ha! They did ask me to be a guest dancer. I chose the foxtrot for that.

I want to be the teacher that dresses all in green and dances around the room. Because you know what, no one in my class would forget algorithm if I did that.

Math Already Makes Me Sweat

Class number two of the summer semester has started. I maintain that class is no way to spend the warm summer months. When the temperatures soar above ninety and the humidity turns the air into something that you wear the situation only deteriorates.

A portion of this class is being held at a local middle school that, regardless of the relative wealth of the school district, does not have air conditioning in the classrooms. Seeing as how I do not have AC in my home this is, perhaps, not as taxing on me as my classmates. However, when I am attempting to explain integer subtraction to reluctant soon-to-be eigth graders I think we could all benefit from some cooler temperatures.

This is my first experience with summer school (other than that ridiculous movie), so I was much relieved to see the casual nature of the dress code. I've seen teachers in shorts, tank tops, and flip flops. Now that is refreshing.

Good Things

• My daffodils are blooming. Bright yellow happy flowers.
• My sedum 'autumn joy' has come back. I wasn't sure it would after its disappointing display last summer and fall. I also think that the one I sprouted from a cutting may have taken root. I will be a happy camper if it has.
• Tomorrow is my last day of student teaching (for this time around anyway). I had a wonderful experience and learned a lot, but it will simplify life to have one less thing on my daily agenda.
• My host teacher has been cleaning out her prep room and storage cabinets. I've been gifted a poster, sand dollars, a fossil, an unused lab kit on genetics, books, and other goodies. Score!
• My copy of Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs arrived yesterday. My sister gave me her first novel, The Friday Night Knitting Club, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It had travel and knitting and close friends. It had characters I cared about, something I look for in a novel. If Comfort Food has even that, I will be happy.
• I've seen woodchucks on my drive home the last two days. For me, that means spring has really arrived.
  

What a week!

I taught the last three days and videotaped myself teaching the last class each day. It's a requirement for my program, but I don't think I'll be watching the tape before I hand it in. I can't even stand to hear a recording of my voice, to say nothing of seeing myself in action.

On Tuesday evening I skipped class and attended a symposium where I went to two workshops and enjoyed a lecture by Moss Woman (one of my undergraduate professors). She is a wonderful public speaker and continues to inspire respect and admiration from me. The vegetable lasagna was pretty good too.

I'm relieved that the kids have a four day weekend, so I can take a mini break from teaching. I still have plenty of work to do this weekend, including a paper (I really ought to check the syllabus to see what the details of that are) and prep work for next week. But I think I may take the night off tonight and catch up on some Law & Order.

(Aside to Momma Val, I found a link for acronyms which you can find in the comments on the last post. Hope that helps!)

Science Class

A Sunny Sunday

I did no prep work for student teaching yesterday. Watching Hometown U lose a game they definitely should have won took a toll on me. I needed a nap by the time I got home. I did make the Staples run last night, carefully purchasing only the two items I went there for. Finally! Red pens! My sleep was disturbed over night by my concern over the undone prep work. I had dreams about not getting it all done in time, about being late to school on Monday, and other stressful things.

So by the time 7:30 rolled around I practically bounced out of bed. I organized my binder using the sheet protectors I'd bought at Staples. I revised the lab I'd developed for Friday based on my notes of what worked and what did not. I started doing research for the lesson plan I'm developing for this coming Friday. I started creating a PowerPoint presentation. I put together a plastic bin of school supplies to reduce the frantic searching for certain items. In there somewhere I also did two loads of laundry and showered (ah, hot water).

Eventually, FF and I went to Panera for a delicious soup and sandwich combo. From there we headed out to Second Home Nature Center to take photos for my PowerPoint. I strapped on my snow shoes, remembering what had happened the last time I'd elected to leave them in the trunk. The sun was shining and the nature center was hopping. People were desperate to get outside and enjoy the beautiful day.

After returning home, I added my newly taken photos to my slide show and worked on a few other things for school. Now I'm about to jump in the car to run up to the grocery store. Gotta go!

A Good Day, All Things Considered

Today I chose to ignore the fever, the cough, and the elephant sitting on my chest to pay a visit to the school I will be student teaching in in two weeks. I observed the 3 classes I will be teaching to get a feel for the students and for how my host teacher operates.

I made notes to myself including things like:

1. get red pens
2. find pencils
3. find blank weekly lesson plan template (on-line?)
4. wear pants with pockets (preferably with back pockets)

I wrote down lots of other more specific-to-her-classroom details, but I won't share those. I wonder if I should buy some black jeans. I'm pretty sure I made it through the 80s without a pair, but I've heard that 80s fashions are back.

FF was kind enough to bring me some cold medicine. Now my nose seems snuffed up too. Bonus.

Out of my hands

Tonight was my last regular class. I have a portfolio review and a final next week and several papers still to write. But at least classes are over.

I got my placement for next semester today. The good news is that it's in a suburban middle school, and the bad news is that means that my full-time student teaching will be in an urban high school. Yikes. I've been told that the high schools are usually less chaotic than the middle schools, and that the urban middle school I observed this semester is particularly disorganized and unpleasant. I hope that turns out to be the case because I really and truly got nothing out of the experience.

Frankly, I am disappointed with this placement and what it means for the next one, but it's out of my hands now. I'd hoped to be (and asked to be) placed on my side of town, but even that didn't pan out. I've also heard less than good things about my host teacher. Oh well, what are you going do...

Burying my head in the sand

The more time that passes between posts, the harder it is for me to think of something to say.

I am so busy, busier now than I've been so far this semester. A lot of my bigger projects are coming due for school, and I'm training and hiring a crop of temps for the coming "busy season" at work. I can't get any work done while I'm at work, so when I get home from class at night instead of working on schoolwork, I'm working on work work. And I don't like like it. (Is that from The Wonder Years?)

Today was the last day of my suburban placement, but because of the chaotic nature of my urban placement I still have 6.5 hours left to clock there. To say that I am less than thrilled would be an understatement.

It's registration time and I don't even want to think about how I will coordinate my classes next semester with a reasonable work schedule. For now I am taking the ostrich approach and ignoring it altogether.

I'm also taking that approach with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. If I ignore it, maybe it won't happen. So far I'm thinking it just might be me and the parade and the heck with the rest of the world. Sometimes I think being a hermit sounds like heaven.

Enough of this; I have to take out the trash.

Progress Report on Classes

I encountered day 2 of fetal pig dissections at my suburban placement yesterday. That did not make me happy. Somehow I'd managed to forget that aspect of high school biology (probably because it was not a part of the curriculum at my high school). There's something to be said for computer simulated dissections...

My group and I had our lab lesson last night. We had to plan and teach a 50 minute lesson. The professor over-booked the class time, and since we occupied the third slot, we had only 20 minutes of class left when we started. Our classmates were grumbling and not as engaged as we had hoped, but at least it's over with. I can put that behind me and worry about the mock parent-teacher conference I have tomorrow.

I was sadden to be told by the principal at one of my placements that chemistry and physics are really "where it's at" in science teaching right now. What about bio? Will I be able to find a job? I'm not sure that was the nicest thing for him to say to me, a first semester grad student. Crush the little newbie, why don't ya!