Saturday, February 9, 2013

Reflecting on the First Week of Teaching

So far, I LOVE being a teacher.  I love choosing my own clothes for work.  I love getting there early and setting up my room for the day.  There have been times this week when my patience has been tried.  I had to give one girl a referral for saying "Shut up b***" when I asked her to move back to her assigned seat.  I issued a quiz to a class of 30 and got 11 papers back with nothing written but a name at the top.  Who puts there name on an empty quiz?  Do they think I offer participation points?  I don't think so.

My students might not know it, but I am learning every day.  I have learned that one class responds to lecture/note-taking while another responds to a discussion format.  Some classes can handle working quietly on their own while others need constant instruction to keep order in the classroom.  Towards the last 10 minutes of one class, there was a boy in the front row that just couldn't keep his mouth shut while we were trying to work through problems as a class.  I moved him to another desk to keep him from distracting his classmates, but it turned into a game of moving the desk forward every time I looked away.  Of course, the class was in stitches and it was extremely disruptive.  I pulled him aside after class and asked him why he was behaving that way.  He showed me his paper and he had the whole homework assignment finished and every problem was correct.  The lightbulb went off in my head.  He's bored!  I talked to another teacher about this and she suggested that I ask him to be my T.A. and when he's finished he can alphabetize class homework by last name to make it easier for me to grade.  I can also have him and another student that's finished play math board games at the back of the classroom.  SO MUCH TO LEARN!  I get so excited to get back in the classroom and try to be a better teacher each day.

There really isn't any other news.  Since I have to get up at 5am every day, I am so tired by 9pm every night.  My feet get so sore from walking up and down the aisles that I have had to postpone my running goals.  But all in all, I am very, very happy.

Daniel showed me this video that one of his friends posted on facebook.  For some reason, this is one of the funniest videos I have ever seen!  Hope it makes your weekend. :)


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