11.02.2008

The Student Teacher Chronicles: Week Ten.

It's no more Mr. Nice Guy (Or something like that). Yup... this week I've finally lost it. And on top of that, a couple of my students (one of which I’ve known since before student teaching anyway because I’m friends with her mom) saw me and a friend at the movies the previous Friday, so they were all hounding me about if she was my girlfriend (which she’s not), blah blah blah, and the one girl I knew ended up telling her mom that we were dating (because her mom and my friend work together, as I used to work with them both). So that caused all sorts of randomness and chaos. Anywho, onto the week.


Monday


This day was a bit off to me. It was a teacher workday thing, so there was no actual class. And because it was the end of the 9 weeks, grades were due by 4 PM. However, I had to deal with a department meeting the entire morning up until lunchtime that was completely and utterly pointless and a waste of time (and I wasn’t the only one who felt that way). Then after lunch, I ran some copies for class the next day, I typed some stuff up, and I put in grade/conduct stuff into the computer for the 9 weeks. That was about it for the day. However, my mentor teacher was sick, so her mood was a little off. And when she’s not in a super mood, neither am I (if you know what I mean). So I left that day feeling pretty upset (though I had no reason to feel that way, I don’t think… it’s just how it goes about).


Tuesday


This day was much better than the previous. My mentor teacher, though still sick, was in a much better mood. I didn’t really do anything first period (though one of the students did tell me “You’re not our teacher!” and I was like “Uh… excuse me?”). Second through fifth periods did quite a bit, as well. They continued on with their vocabulary again. After that, they got back their essays and a personal editing log so they’ll have to go back and further edit their papers. They also got their next homework assignment for the week (starting speeches now for homework to prep them for the next 9 weeks, so they’re getting “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Should be fun. That speech, though not the entire thing, is pretty hardcore with all the fire and eternal damnation kind of thing). Oh, and I also got to go and watch another teacher’s class for a few minutes while she ran down to the nurse real quick to pick something up. It was only for a few minutes, but it was still pretty cool. And then sixth period, I introduced them to the Shakespearian Sonnet.

However, due to some stuff that happened in sixth period, I got a bit of a talk (though not a bad one) from my mentor teacher. She said that one of the things I need to work on, especially for my upcoming two weeks solo (as she’ll have to re-take over afterwards), is not getting off-task along with the students. We’re all pretty friendly with each other, and we all get off task into different conversations sometimes, but the difference between my mentor and I is that she knows when to stop the conversation and get them back on task, while I get carried away with the conversing. But she also said it wasn’t completely my issue, as it had a lot to do with how the room was set up and how that created certain dynamics within the classroom. So starting seventh period conference and after school, we re-arranged all the desks and stuff to make a better structured class (because she had the desks set up in a cross-fire style, which leads to a lot more talking). So we moved all that stuff around and then set up some more seating charts for each class, and we’ll just explain them as it being a new 9 weeks, so we decided to freshen things up a bit by changing things around. She also told me she usually does this anyway, so that’s cool.


Wednesday


Besides having to deal with negative reactions to a new seating chart in every class period, the first half of the day was boring as heck, because my mentor teacher did practically everything. I just kind of sat back and tried not to fall asleep. But then during the second half of fourth period, after lunch, she had me pick up on stuff and start going over the grammar portion of the work we did today. So for fourth and fifth period, I did that. Sixth period just continued to work on their poems. However, my mentor teacher also got progressively sick as the day went on, becoming more and more ‘blah’, as it were. So during seventh period conference we had a grade-level meeting, which ended right before school let out. And then after school, she went through everything I’d need to know for the next day because she decided to set up a sub for the next day because she didn’t feel as if she’d be able to come in on Thursday (and that threw her off even more, because she hadn’t stayed home sick since her first year of teaching in which she had pneumonia). So we went through all that together and then left for the day. And that was about it for Wednesday (oh, and I did get one girl to tell me not to stand so close to her desk because it creeped her out and she felt all paranoid. That was interesting).


Thursday


So this day was yet another day I got the entire class to myself with a sub sitting in the background due to my mentor teacher not being there. First period, my AP class, went alright. However, this one girl is really starting to piss me off. This is the same girl who told me I wasn’t her teacher at the beginning of the week. But now she told me something even more extreme than that. Because I don’t do a whole lot with AP (because my mentor teacher does most of it, due to you having to be specially qualified in order to teach AP), I often don’t know answers to the questions they ask me… even though most of the questions they ask me always deal with some specific format or whatever that my mentor teacher wants of them, and they always decide to ask ME instead of HER for whatever reason. So today, however, without any provocation or anything, and without even me not knowing anything (because I actually knew what I was doing this time), that one girl comes over to me toward the end of class and was like “So are you ever actually going to know anything in here for once?” I was so set aback that I couldn’t even say anything. I just stared at her before the bell rang and she hurried out the door.

And then second through fifth periods had a lot to do. They started with their vocab word of the day, then moved on to a MLA bibliography form for books (broken down to super easy), and then finished out with more work book stuff for grammar. Second, fourth, and fifth periods drove me crazy. Though, during this process, I finally found the correct tone and look for my “teacher voice” and “teacher face” (respectively). Yeah, I got them to shut up (at least for a few minutes, anyway).

And then third period scared the heck out of me because we had a lock down drill and nobody had told me about it, and they didn’t announce it beforehand as a drill. But that went fine. Ironically, though, I had just been talking to another student about this book I’m reading (Battle Royale), because he saw the movie version, and it’s about a group of fifteen-year-old Japanese students who are taken to an island and have to kill each other off until only one is left. About two minutes after we talk about it, they start the lock down drill, so that was ironic.

And I had this one guy in fifth period (the same one I always bring up) who kept freakin out all day, coming by continuously, waiting for my mentor teacher even though I kept telling him she’s out for the day, because he really needed to talk to her.

And then sixth period was just chaotic as usual. Oh, and Crazy Girl, at one point, told me to be quiet, so I was like “excuse me? I can talk if I want to. I’m the teacher.” To which her response was “No you’re not.” “Oh yes, I am.”

So yeah… that was my Thursday in a nutshell. They (with the exception of third period and half of sixth) have basically pushed me too far now. It’s no more Mr. Nice Guy.


Friday


My mentor teacher was back, better, and in a pretty good mood. I told her all about the previous day, though I had massively cooled down since it had all happened. But she had a talk with the one girl from first period, who then apologized (which always makes me feel awkward), as she thought she was just joking around. My mentor teacher pretty much took care of the rest of first period. Second through fifth period my mentor teacher sat back and let me continue with everything (which was nice). We just continued with vocab and grammar and all that good stuff. Then sixth period I introduced a super easy type of poem (just one word used visually… it’s called a Concrete Poem). Seventh period conference had a lot of grading in it… then after school was used for planned the next week (as well as a few change-of-plans for what I’m going to be doing during my two weeks solo). I was out of there by about 4:45 or so. Overall, a pretty good day.

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