160 pages of really bad spelling and grammar

The letters project is going well. Right now we have about 160 kids involved in the whole ordeal. So that means, every day a letter is due, I end up reading all of them that night and then redistribute them the following morning. It's a very time consuming and logistically demanding project but in the end I think (and hope) that it will be totally worth it.

So far, each student has written 2 letters to their secret pen-pal. There are going to be two more letter exchanges until people find out who they are writing to. They have been really excited to receive their letters so far, so thats making the whole process worthwhile in my book.

then she started weeping.

We had our third round of parent teacher conferences last night. Overall, my classes have been going well. We had our second test of the quarter on monday so I had a good number of grades going into conferences.

So far this quarter, we have finished our native american unit, started and completed our immigration unit, did three chapters (Gilded Age, America as a World Power, and Progressivism) in one day, and started World War 1. Because of that, I'm pretty proud of myself so far this quarter.

On Monday we had our test, generally the kids did really well. Out of all my classes, the average was about an 83. So I'm pretty happy about that - 1 girl got 100% so that was good too.

Tuesday we started WWI but most of my classes were a little messed up because we had a guest speaker come into the school for an assembly that day. Before each assembly or pep rally, all the students go back to their homerooms and then they get sent to the assemblies from there in an orderly fashion. My homeroom (well I'm the homeroom assistant to another teacher) was patiently and silently (the teacher I help out leads that homeroom with an iron fist, it's amazing) to be call. Randomly the teacher I help, Judy, spots one kid doing something and says to give her whatever he is messing around with. It's a tin box that says "Car" or something on the side of it. It looked like a box an old-school throw-back toy would come in. Anyway, she starts to look at it trying to figure out what it is. (At this point in my head I've already decided I would have given it back to the kid because we have no idea what it is). But Judy opens the lid to the box and she goes right back into the room, calls the kid out of his desk and immediately brings him to the main office. When Judy opened the box, I could just barely see the top of a ziploc bag, so I figured with her reaction and the fact the kid has a ziploc bag in a box that has to have been drugs. Yep, it was. He had 21 grams of marijuana in that box and he was in the process of trying to hide it when he saw him. And of course, the class that was the first to meet after the assembly was over was the Period that I'm supposed to have this kid in class. The whole period everyone is asking what happened to him and whispering back and forth to each other, I tried my best to keep the class focussed, I actually did pretty well up until the last 5 minutes.

Wednesday and Thursday the kid was absent from class, but he was still listed on my online gradebook meaning he was still enrolled in the school. But at the end of the day today, I officially got a letter in my mailbox asking me to send his final grade as of December 7 to the Vice Principal of Academics because he is no longer a member of the school community. The kid had an 88 average in my class. He was a god kid who I would have never suspected this from at all, it was actually making me upset because he was such a stupid idiot. I feel bad for his parents, who at the previous two parent teacher conferences both showed up, both times. They wanted to make sure he was on track and on top of everything. I kept telling them that he was and that he was a great student, it just sucks that they have to deal with this whole mess now.

But, parent teacher conferences. We had them last night from 5 to 7. By 5 o'clock I already had met with 2 sets of parents who decided to come in early. For the next two hours I only met with 7 other students' parents. Ridiculous. So I would sit at my table alone and bored (although I am now planned until the end of January). But one parent came up to my table at one point, looked a bit confused and said, "I think you have my daughter for history." She told me her daughter's name, I did, so we started talking.

Me: "Well Julie has a 93 average right now, she's doing great"

Her: "Oh really, wow that's great."

"Yeah, she's great in class, she pays attention, takes notes well, participates ...."

"She participates in class!? really?"

"Yes, is that surprising?"

"No teacher has ever said he participates in class, she left middle school without ever talking to one of her teachers at all."

[at this point the mother's eyes start to tear up]

"Wow, OK. I would have never known that. She's great in class, she's outgoing and seems very confident."

"Confident! Oh my God, I'm going to cry. I wish I had paper so I could write this down."

"We are talking about Julie [last name] right?"

"I wanted to ask you the same thing, yes we are."

"Out of anyone in that class, she probably exudes the most confidence."

"Oh my God [weeping] I wish I had my cellphone recorder so I could have recorded you say that. this is amazing. I am so proud of her, you must be doing something right, this is amazing. OK, I'll let you go, I don't want to hold you up if you have other parents."

"Seriously, I've been sitting here for and hour and a half, you are the 7th parent I've talked to, I don't think you have to worry about that."

Anyway the conversation kept going for a little bit more. She kept saying how this made her day and how proud she was of her daughter. Honestly, after meeting this girl you would have never been able to know that she used to have confidence issues or that she hardly ever talked. She's great in class, talks, participates, comes to my other classes to say hi (but also to avoid going to her regular classes) and stuff like that. I had to stop the woman a few times to ask if we were still talking about the same person. So that made me feel very good, but I don't think I could take any of the credit for it.

But back to teaching. We have just started WWI and part of the unit is a new and exciting project. After about three full days of planning, organizing, and coding myself and another teacher have created a World War One Letters Project. Working with one other teacher, we will be organizing a project that involves 8 different history classes made up of 3 different grades (sophomores, juniors, and seniors).

Each student has been assigned an identity (soldier in the trenches, doctor on the front lines, factory worker, mother of soldier, etc) They have to pretend that they are that person and write a letter either home or to their friend or relative in the war. A student in a different class will receive that letter as the relative at war or person at home and respond to it. The students will continue to correspond with each other through 10 letters. the whole time, the students will have no idea who they are corresponding with up until the very last letter when they sign their real names. It took a lot of organization but I think the students will really get into it and have fun with the project. The first letters are due on monday so I can't wait to read them and see what the kids are up to.

Until then.

"Wait, how many states are in the Union? And what's the Union?"

Classes have been going pretty well. We are now almost done with the unit I created when I student-taught, so that was easy. Not much else to say. The days are somewhat dragging by but the weeks are going quickly. I can't believe it's almost December.

I gave a quiz last friday and the average on it was somewhere between an 82 and an 85 depending on the class period. Maybe it was too easy, or maybe they just got it. Either way, they did well and they were all really happy about it (which made me feel good as a teacher).

The other day we were talking about something and I asked what it reminded them of from what we've covered so far. Some kids were picking out similarities with things we learned during the first two weeks. I was pumped.

Today we took a "test" on the 100 Most Frequently Asked Questions for an immigrant applying to be a US citizen. We made a game out of it in class to see how many of the students could pass the citizenship test. They did horribly, some scored in the 30s. Some scored in the 80s though, so that was good. But I got wicked excited when a few of them moaned at each other, "this is so hard, I'm so glad we are already citizens and don't have to take this. I would totally not be allowed to stay in the country." I was so happy they got it and understood the purpose of the activity without me telling them anything.

One Down; who knows how many more?

Gave my first detention today. Well not a real detention, a teacher-detention. But still, I have now given one.

I won't get into details, but a male student was being ridiculously inappropriate in class, so I told him he had to see me after school.

When he got to my room after school (on time even) I handed him an index card with an assignment:

In a 300 (or more) word hand-written essay, explaining why what you did was ridiculously inappropriate. Due: Thursday.

Yes I could have been stricter, but with the circumstances of it all, I thought I handled it well. It at least sends a message to him and the rest of the class.

shumanitutanka ob wachi

We have now finished "Dances with Wolves" and today I did an whole lesson on Reservations Today. We talked about a bunch of different statistics and data about the reservations and then I specifically talked about the one I worked on in South Dakota by sharing stories and pictures.

The kids seemed to appreciate it, some questioned me about whether it was worth it or not. A valid question, they asked it appropriately though so it was OK. That got the class into a big debate which I was really happy to see.

Next week we start an Immigration Unit, so we'll be talking about a different population of people in America. It should get interesting.

Until then.

TEST DATA!

Also, I meant to update about the test. Overall, things went pretty well.

In my technology class, because he's teaching us excel non-stop. So I made an excel spread sheet that calculated averages for each period per section and also the averages of all the classes put together.

As you can see, my Period 4 class is made up of super-humans.

Fill Ins - out of 20 points

Matching - out of 20 points

Chronology - out of 10 points

Map - out of 20 points

Essay - out of 30 points

Bonus - out of 5 points

Total - out of 100 points

	FILL IN	MATCHING	CHRONO	MAP	ESSAY	BONUS	TOTAL
PERIOD 1	12.87	16	7.93	12.13	24.93	4.67	78.53
PERIOD 2	12.83	16.08	7.5	7.63	25.54	4.67	74.25
PERIOD 3	14.33	16.67	8.4	9.13	23.8	4.8	77.13
PERIOD 4	17	17.65	9.29	17.29	28.18	4.76	94.18
PERIOD 5	16.32	17.26	7.84	13.68	26.58	4.53	86.21
ALL	14.61	16.71	8.13	11.73	25.87	4.68	81.73

4 days of teaching, 4 days of movie

This week has been going by pretty well, (yes I'm aware it's only wednesday morning). This week we started the "Moving West," "Manifest Destiny" mini-unit. I was actually pretty excited to start this because this is what I began my student teaching with.

During student teaching I covered Early frontier life and Native American history (1870s to today) all in one overwhelming lesson for my students. This year (as a real teacher), I have taken what I did in one day and made it into a four-day ordeal.

We started with early frontier life and manifest destiny, then we did a lesson on the clashes between frontiersmen and Native Americans, today we will be covering the Native American Wars, and we'll be wrapping up this mini-unit with a lesson Reservations today.

And, because time allows, we are going to watch "Dances with Wolves" too. So I'm pretty excited about this unit. Also I realized I was awful as a teacher when I student taught. So that's a great realization.

"Union Wins! WOOOO UNION!!"

Spirit Week ended well. Thursday was crazy tie day, two of my roommates and I went in with real bowties that we tied ourselves (thanks YouTube). Friday was theme day. The students decorated the hallways to their themes the night before. The main floor was a jungle for Tarzan, the senior hallway was split in two with a "heaven" side and a "hell" side for Hercules (including a River Styx). The junior hallway, by far the best was all decked out like Alice in Wonderland with the theme "into the rabbit hole". The sophomore Peter Pan hallway just looked like someone threw green streamers all over the place for no reason. So they were horrible.

Friday afternoon was a rally with class skits. The freshmen did well, they reenacted the music in the camp scene from Tarzan. The sophomores sucked. Seniors was 15 minutes of confusion, with zombies, angels, demons, Thriller, and a fight scene? I don't know. Juniors again were awesome they had the tea party scene and then some more after that which was awesome. The faculty (not me) reenacted the hippo dance scene from Fantasia. HILARIOUS.

This week was good though. My classes' Civil War Reenactment Projects were due. A majority of the students made dioramas of battles, some awesome most other mediocre. One group did an in-class reenactment. I have about 8 groups make movies and they were awesome. Legitimately, awesome. I was so impressed. It was great, funny too. One group had in the beginning that their video was dedicated to me even.

We had review games too this week, went well, got to use a Smart Board. Got observed and evaluated, generally good (he didn't enjoy the review game). But test tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes (I really hope the do well, they are totally capable).

College Bowl

We are preparing for the college bowl in my free period this morning. The College Bowl is a trivia competition. So I'm helping one of the teacher come up with answers. So these are the responses we are going to try to work into the College Bowl:

I would like to phone a friend

Whoopi for the block please

I would like to spin again

When do we play Plinko?

Where's the Agro-Crag?

Umm, $701, Bob

I would like to take the physical challenge

I would like to solve the puzzle

Can I make it a true daily double?

Can I buy a vowel?

Red Light Challenge!

Good Answer, Good Answer

No Whammy!

You are the weakest link!

No Deal.

When do I put the Silver Monkey together?

We can't think of more right now, but I'm sure there are tons out there.

advance, retreat,, double advance, double retreat, lunge

For the past two days (well lesson, not every class meets everyday) I have been going over the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address. Two full lessons on a battle that lasted 3 days.

For our next lesson, we will be learning about Reconstruction. A period of 12 years all wrapped up into one 45 minute lesson.

We'll see how that goes.

Beyond that, school has been going pretty well. This week is "Spirit Week" because Homecoming is Saturday (at my high school homecoming was never a big deal, so this is new to me). But for spirit week:

Monday - Tie-Dye and Neon Day (dress up in those clothes - I didn't join in)

Tuesday - Twin Day (pick a partner and dress alike, me and my twin were awesome - we wore matching polos and jeans but then over that we worn 1980 throwback Astro's jerseys. For some reason, he had 2 of them, we were wicked cool)

Wednesday - College Sweatshirt Day (makes sense) but also the "College Bowl" takes place. Freshmen vs. Sophomores, Juniors vs. Seniors, Faculty plays the winner of the students.

Thursday - Crazy Tie and Tights Day

Friday - Theme dress down day.

- each class has a di fferent theme and for friday the students have to dress according to their theme (the faculty get to dress in whatever theme they want)

Freshmen - Tarzan

Sophomores - Peter Pan

Juniors - Alice in Wonderland

Seniors - Hercules

We'll see how the rest of the week ends up.

[right now i'm doing after school cafeteria duty. on tuesdays, the fencing team has practice. imagine about 50 or so awkward high school kids fencing. yes it's hilarious and terrifying at the same time]

Parent Teacher Night

Last night was parent-teacher night and it actually went really well. Like all the others teachers have told me, basically all the parents you need to see don't show and all the parents you really have nothing to say to show up.

But it went well, of my 100 or so students, I have 25 of their parents show up. Not bad, I do teacher juniors so most of the parents don't really have the need to come into school and talk to their kid's teachers anymore. But some did. Parent Teacher night went for three hours, and I think I talked to parents in total for about 45-60 minutes of that.

Typical exchange:

"Hi, I'm [john doe]'s mom, how are you?"

"Good, [john] has a 90+ average"

"I know, I just saw there was no line at your table so I figured I would stop by. Ok, nice to meet you, goodbye"

"bye?"

There were three students who were failing and I was happy to see their parents show up so I got to talk to them.

Student 1: GREAT student, pays attention, participates, asks questions, very smart (got 100% on our first big quiz), but never hands in her homework.

Her Mom: "this is horrible, this is outrageous. I am not happy with this average [not mad at me, so I don't mind]. she said she wanted to study history in college, not with these grades. I won't let her. Oooh, I have to talk to her when I get home. This is just unacceptable"

Honestly, that was the most upset any parent got all night. So good for me I guess.

Student 2: pays attention, a little chatty, doesn't participate much in class, and does not hand in homework.

Her mom: "Why does [jane doe] have such a low average (49%)?

Me: "she pays attention in class and in engaged but honestly she just isn't handing stuff in.

Her mom: "Oh, I could just slap her ....."

Student 3: extremely quiet, never participates, never hands things in, did mediocre on the firs big quiz, just doesn't seem to care

His dad: "I see that [john doe] isn't doing well in your class, he has the habit of not handing things in. I think he's rebelling against his mother and I because we're academics. His mother is a computer technician and researcher and I am a mathematician and nuclear physicist."

Me (in my head) "HOLY CRAP! no wonder he's not doing anything in school. PHYSICIST!?"

but overall the night went really well. I had four parents tell me how much their kid loves me class. One parent who son is pretty much exactly my little brother Billy just in a different body told me "oh he really likes you. I can tell that something clicked and he really loves your class. He definitely admires and looks up to you." Another mother told me, "almost anyone can teach, but not everyone can inspire. i can tell you're doing great things because you have inspire my daughter to try harder and appreciate school."

So yeah. I must be doing something right.

who knows?

The week is going by pretty well. They took the PSATs which was an off day for all the teachers yesterday but today was back into the swing of things.

Parent - Teacher conferences tonight. So we'll see how that goes.

Sans Beard

So on a whim I shaved off my beard last night. Relatively happy with it.

It's so funny to watch students try to figure out what is different about me and then come to the realization soon after.

One student was jokingly upset (although he was a little serious) I shaved. "Why did you shave off your beard? You inspired me to one day grow a beard, now that out the window." So for the rest of the class, he proceeded to point out every guy with facial hair in my Civil War pictures slideshow.

insert > table> i'm not kidding

Lately, the days have all been blending together. We've been covering the Civil War for about a week now and we are going to continue with the Civil War for about one more week.

We started with Lincoln's election, then the states seceding, and since then we've been covering a couple battles a day with one day dedicated to the Emancipation Proclamation. Next week, I plan on spending at least 2 full days on Gettysburg.

So yeah. school's school. Outside of teaching, the classes I'm taking are going well. One of the teachers in my "Supervision of Personnel Problems" class is a grammar crazy person. She has said, if you even only forget to capitalize one word in your paper, it is not deserving of anything higher than a B+. Crazy Person!

To other class I'm taking about using Technology as a school administrator, the teacher is explaining different types of technologies and how to use them. Last week we learned about Microsoft Word and how to insert a table, and he said for the next 5 classes we'll be learning about Microsoft Excel . Seriously, this is a graduate program. Seriously.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Sorry about the lack of updating.

Last week we started the Civil War ad we went through some of the battles and logistics. It was pretty dry. (I personally think the Civil War is wicked boring). So I decided to punch up the week with a Civil War song lesson.

I had all the students clear their desks so they had nothing in front of them. Then I played the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and asked to students to listen for Civil War or Military imagery. Next we listened to the song again and this time I gave the students the lyrics. I asked them to circle or at least mark any words or phrases that contained that imagery they were looking for.

They sort of got into it, but not so much (wasn't expecting much) so I went one step further. I had them create their own groups in the classroom instead of me assigning groups. And as a group they had to create their own Civil War song in whatever style they wanted. There were some guidelines, but really they had artistic license.

They all really got into the activity. Most groups did raps, but they were surprisingly good. It made my day (week almost)

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up my week.

they're dancing to songs that are older than they are

So chaperoning high school dances is pretty much the greatest thing ever. They are hilarious! Extremely hilarious.

The Shire

School's been going well. Nt much to report. Today all my students have their first quiz. They're all freaking out but it is pretty easy and straight-forward. I in no way aim to confuse them.

But yesterday we spent the day playing a review game to go over everything and calm their anxieties about the quiz. Somehow one of the classes became incredibly interested in how tall I was and started making jokes.

One girl kept asking exactly how tall I was and insisted she was taller (I knew she was but I wasn't going to admit to it). Then she came up to the front of the room, stood next to me and laughed. Then a football player came up to the front of the room (he was a foot taller than me) and everyone laughed. I hear one girl say "he's such a cute little person" and I called her out on it. And then I heard people talking about the Shire. So yeah, yesterday was fun.

Buffalo Cheese

Today was pretty uneventful. Some of the classes analyzed political cartoons about slavery and for homework they have to create their own.

But during lunch duty today, a random guy of kids called me over to their table.

"Do you know where Parmesan Cheese comes from"

"I don't know, Italy?"

"No, like what animal? He swears it comes from a buffalo"

- the kid who thinks it comes from a buffalo then goes off on a rant while I slowly walk away

does a chair plow a field?

Today three of my classes reenacted the Dred Scott Court Case. Scott sued his owners for his freedom and the case made it all the way up the Supreme Court.

In order to get the students to have a deeper understanding of the case, as a class we had a mock trial presentation. We had two judges (from the original trial and then the Supreme Court trial) Dred Scott, Scott's attorney, Scott owners, their attorney, and at least two witnesses.

The first class did fine, it could have gone smoother but since none of us had done project like this before there were some problems that came up that we never thought of. But it went well none the less.

The next class I did it with I set some guidelines and an order that we were going to do things in the "court room." They all really got into it, the lawyers were great on both sides and Dred Scott really held his own. The judge had parted his hair during lunch so he would look more professional even. (The judge also got to wear my robe from graduation).

The next class got into it too. They were giggling and stuff the whole time, but it still worked and the objective of the project was made. The owners' lawyer compared Scott to a chair trying to say that Scott was just property, at which time Scott yells "Does a chair plow fields!? Does a chair have a soul? etc" It was really funny.

I was glad to see all the kids get into it. I'm finishing up with this project on Wednesday with my 2 other classes, they're Honors so we'll see if there's a difference. But on the whole all the students really appreciated this type of project and asked if they can do something like this again.

Hilarious

Today was awesome.

First off, I planned my whole day in the car ride it took to get to school (all of 6 minutes). I gave the kids a quiz and did a mini lesson on how to take proper notes. Because the kids have been wicked slow taking notes when I give presentations because they copy verbatim everything that is on the slide. It's bad, so we talked about abbreviations, efficiency in note taking (no extra information) and things like that.

We ended up playing a "note taking game" where it was a race to take legible notes that get all of the pertinent information in the fastest amount of time. The whole class got involved, it was a lot of fun and it made the day go by fast.

But we were also talking about what was most important in history in the students opinion. One guy was talking about Columbus, I asked him why he thought he was important.

"Well, if it wasn't for Columbus, none of us would be here"
right away another student, who's dad is the leading member of the native american tribe in the area says
"None of YOU would be here!!!"
it was HILARIOUS. the whole class started laughing, it was great.

then another guy said that he thought the French and Indian War was the most important. Most of the other football players in the class were making fun of him for picking such a random topic. But he explained his opinion, he backed it up well.
Then one of the football players who was making fun of him the most talked about his opinion. He said.

"Well I couldn't decide what one thing was most important in history, so I made a list of eight things ...

Declaration of Independence
Industrial Revolution
Printing Press
Treaty of Versailles
Seven Years War
Reformation
Fall of Roman Empire
Plymouth in 1620"

I then told Tyler that that was a good list, but asked him if he knew what another name for the Seven Years War was. Right away, Joe the one who thought the French and Indian War was most important, from the front of the class yells "Check it!"

So I said, "Tyler, the other name for the Seven Years War is the French and Indian War." Again hilarious.

So today was a good day and now class is going to start

Parent-Teacher Night!

Parent-Teacher night was a huge success. I thought it went really well, could not be happier. I told them a little bit about myself, where I went to school the degree I received, how I'm getting my masters. I was pretty much oozing enthusiasm. The parents were great, a few of them came up to me afterwards, "my daughter absolutely loves your class, and you did great tonight."

So yeah, weight lifted off my shoulders. First PTA meeting done. Moving on.

SURPRISE!

The first monday of the school year went pretty well. As a whole, the days are all going by smoothly. However this week in particular is very hectic.

On monday we talked about Harriet Beecher Stowe and "Uncle Tom's Cabin." I explained how it was a fictitious book but it was based in reality. Similar to reality TV, and one of the students right away was like "Oh man, so Uncle Tom's Cabin is just like the Jersey Shore." I stopped the conversation there, being shocked how Harriet Beecher Stowe and Jersey Shore were being referenced in the same sentence. I was sure to stop it before it turned into a discussion on which character is most like Snooky.

Another student in class started asking about John Brown because we were going to discuss him that day too. "Is he that guy that is [this] [this] [this] and [this]?" I was surprised there too, "Actually Evan that completely right, and you just brought up pretty much everything I was going to say about John Brown today." So I asked him how he already knew all that and the response caught me off guard. "Well I was watching the history channel last night and the episode was all about the US before the Civil War, I like watching the History channel because it's only one away from Bravo. I was flipping back and forth between that and the Real Housewives of New Jersey."

Today went pretty well too. All my classes were engaged and attentive. The lectures went well, American Idol got brought up in regards to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858. During my last period of the day I was in the middle of my lecture and I thought doing pretty well. And then SURPRISE! unannounced informal observation by the principal! He stayed for about 5 minutes in the back of the class. I thought I held my own pretty well. I was loud and clear when I talked, I was engaging the students and asking them questions. I was excited and enthusiastic about the material. At the end of the period, well after he left, I had to thank my students for doing so well while he was there.

So tonight is Parent-Teacher night. The parents go through a mini-schedule so they meet all their students teachers and get a glimpse of what it's like for the students to get lost and confused in the crowded hallways. I'm excited to meet all the parents, because I officially know all my students names now, but I'm freaking about it too. So we'll see how it goes

Also, tomorrow I'm getting observed by the director of the program I'm in. fun fun.

homework stinks as a teacher too

I hate grading. Why did I ever think it was a good idea to assign this much homework.

All Grow'ed Up

So I pretty much absolutely love my school and teaching in general.

Today was a great day. All my classes went really well, I have another class of names down. I'm starting to develop some really good connections with my students. The classrooms (although only day 4) seem like they've been together for weeks now. Everything is just going really well.

Tonight we went to the freshman football game and saw some students, I felt like an adult but not entirely like a teacher. It was still a good feeling. Later on tonight we went to the varsity football game against our school's biggest rival. For some reason, walking into the stadium I felt like such a teacher. Students were saying hi, (and I knew their names too). It was just a great feeling.

I feel as though I'm really settling into the place and I'm starting to get a glimpse of why so many of the teachers here have stuck around for so long and continue to dedicate themselves to these kids and the school community as a whole.

Pop Quiz

Day 3 went pretty well. I continued lecturing the kids to give them background info for the Civi War. At this point it is a dry period in history, we've been learning the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

I gave my classes a four question pop quiz. They all actually did pretty well. That made them feel good, and it made me feel even better.

All-in-all yesterday was lack luster. I had my second class for grad school yesterday too. MIND NUMBINGLY BORING. It's a course about using technology in the classroom which would seem to be very interesting and incredibly practical. But .... we're going to start the year off with how to use a Word Processor. Awesome.

That's all for now.

Today (because I'm writing this abut yesterday during today's free period) we're having a pep-rally. They were great as students, I wonder what it's like as a teacher. We will see.

Day 2

Today was my real first day of school, today I actually began teaching. It was great. I met with 4 out of 5 of my classes today. In the first class I did the syllabus and stuff i did yesterday because they didn't meet yesterday. But in my other classes I started actually teaching.

I did a presentation/lecture on the Compromise of 1850. I thought it went really well. They kids were all attentive, for the most part except towards the end of the last period (understandable) but they still paid enough attention. They were asking questions, they were answering my questions. They were laughing at my jokes, or laughing at me for my stupid jokes.

at one point I tried a joke, it didn't work. I apparently made a face, and then one of the student just burst out laughing. I asked what was so funny, because time had passed so I knew she wasn't laughing at my joke (and it was a bad joke, I knew that going in) and she just said, "you're face is priceless right now!" So whatever that meant, i was fine with it. It was after this point that this particular girl started paying more attention and participating in class. So I guess my face did good today.

But as a whole I am really happy with how today went. I am getting most of the names down. I already have 2 full classes and most of the other 3 classes already, so I'm happy about that.

Yesterday while I was doing afternoon cafeteria duty (I sit in the caf from 2:30-5:00 and tell kids not to sit on tables, make out, or run around) a parent came up to me and said, "you, you look like you're a teacher, can you help me?" AWESOME. made my day. that was great.

But now that I am a real full-blown teacher, being a student starts back up today. Fun fun. My grad classes continue today and thursday from 4:30-6:00. I'm super-duper excited for it (sarcasm).

.... until then.

Day 1

Today was the first real day of school. All in all it went by smoothly. Out of the 7 periods today, I taught in 4 of them. I got to meet me students and got to know them a little bit better. I already have a lot of the names down already.

In my classes today, I went over my syllabus, went over the seating chart, and gave them their first assignment (a 3 page essay). Then I gave all the students index cards and they had to write some information about themselves down for me: name, the name they go by, birthday, extracurriculars, expectation for the class, and a fun fact

All of my classes had a little bit of a difficult time figuring out a "fun fact" but after a little bit of explaining, I got some pretty interesting answers:

• I can dislocate my left shoulder
• I dislike when people chew loudly
• I'm second in the state for golf
• I once swallowed a bingo chip
• I have a metal pelvis
• I met David Hasslehoff
• I met the Pope
• I want to be a clown
• I'm named after Lawrence Taylor
• I'm super-duper social
• I eat marshmallows with almost everything
• I love Canada
• I crashed by F-150 into a tree this weekend
• I'm a bird watcher
• When I listen to the radio, I'd rather seek & scan the stations than listen to just one station
• I only have one kidney
• My grandpa owns 200 cows
• I'm captain and founder of the badminton club

So I think this is shaping up to becoming a good, and interesting, year

0 Days on the Job without an Error

So today .... yeah.

Yesterday was the first day of student orientation. Yesterday was for seniors and freshmen and today was for juniors and sophomores. Last week I told the principal and vice principal that I had a cardiologist appointment in Boston on Wednesday. They told me it was fine for me to leave around 930 on wednesday morning. I only had Junior history classes anyway.

So yesterday, I went up to the principal's administrative assistant and told her that I was leaving. She told me I was all set and I went on my way. My doctor's appoint went fine, but that's beside the point.

I got to school today and found a note from the principal in my mailbox. Apparently one of my junior history classes has 6 seniors in it. There was no way for me to know, but it technically wasn't my fault but yup ... way to mess up on the first day. The principal was understanding, he knew that it was a miscommunication on all sides so he couldn't hold it against me.

But I met all (except the 6) students today. It went really well. I was wicked nervous before the day but now I'm so excited for the year. I told the kids how I have high expectations of them, basically went over my classroom expectations, and gave them a little info about me. All if not most of the students were positive, attentive, and a little enthusiastic.

This is going to be a good year. They don't see it coming but on the first real day of school they're getting assigned a 3 page essay.

"I don't understand what they're talking about"... "it's ok, we don't need it"

Today was the first full faculty day. I got more aquatinted with the school, got to see all my different classrooms, all 5. Got to meet more of the faculty and the administration. Then we sat through an hour long presentation on the new retirement plan for the school staff. As a member of this program we aren't eligible for retirement because we don't get a salary from the school, we get a stipend. So it was absolutely pointless for us to hear it, but we had to. It was BORING and extremely confusing, but the confusing matter didn't make a difference because it didn't matter what the hell they were saying because it had no bearing on me (self-centered I know, but whatever).

So for the rest of the day I finished my syllabi, finished the quiz I'm giving on my syllabi, finished writing out the essay assignment I'm giving on the first day, filled out my grade book, and finished up all my seating charts.

I'm starting to feel like I'm really a part of this faculty, it weird. But about time (school starts tomorrow). Oh, and my heart monitor went off 12 times today (two of which were during mass)

Look out for Bookcases

So today was the "Teach don't Touch" seminar. Let me tell you, wicked fun. The seminar started with the Superintendent of Schools giving us a brief history of the district. Boring. "The school district has 13 schools and 600 teachers." (The high school I'm working in makes up 100 of those teachers).

Next they turned on a movie for us to watch about Child Abuse and Neglect and the signs to look for and all about reporting it. It was a boring, poorly produced movie but that's expected and I was actually OK with that. Then the movie began it's second half. "Tips in order to avoid misunderstandings." All about things us Teachers should avoid doing so that it cannot be misconstrued as sexual abuse. It started with the normal ones.

- if you're with a student in your classroom alone, make sure the door is left open.

- remain visible to others whenever you are alone with students

- avoid hugging students

(all valid, but basically common sense)

then the ridiculous things started ....

- "if your going to meet with a student after school, don't do it behind a bookcase"

- "if you have to help a student pull up their pants after they go to the bathroom, don't do it behind a bookcase" [there were elementary school teachers at the seminar too]

- "do not congratulate students by slapping their butts"

-- and so on.

RIDICULOUS

So yeah, here's to teaching.

One step closer

We had our New Teachers Orientation meeting today. Pretty much a crash course in the school, they threw everything at us. Introduced us to pretty much everyone in the school.

It was good though, I learned a lot of stuff I needed to. I found out when I have lunch duty (only 2 days every two weeks, so not bad). I found out when I have parking lot duty (December, so that'll be fun, I figure I'll just throw snowballs at all the kids).

Out of the five classes I'm teaching, I'm going to be in four different classrooms. I saw the classrooms today, not bad. So I'm actually getting pretty excited for the school year. Finished up writing each class's syllabus this afternoon. Haven't really started fully planning yet, but I still have time. I just want to have at least the first week all planned out before the school year starts. I already know that I'm assigning a 4 page essay on the first day, so that's exciting.

Also, my heart monitor only went off 14 times today during the teachers' meeting. We've been taking bets as to how many times it's going to go off now, my heart has turned into a game. We'll see how many times it goes off tomorrow during the "Teach don't Touch" seminar. fun fun.

Seriously

Today was our first real teacher meeting. We went into the high school to get out school laptops. It was weird at first, all the teachers on a first name basis with the vice principal (which makes perfect sense, it was just really weird to be considered a "peer"). But we got our brand new laptops. They're awesome. (I'm on it now).

Now we're all getting settled into our community house. It's an old convent that needs a lot of work, but it's coming along well (well enough). So far seven of us are officially moved in, we're still waiting on four more people to move in until our house is complete.

Get Ready

Teacher's meetings start on Monday. I'm pretty excited for it because in reality I don't know much really about the school I'm going to be teaching in. I know the history, mission, and philosophy of the school but I don't know or understand a lot of the schools logistics. So I'm happy to sit through all-day seminars because as much as I know it will be boring as hell, I will get something out of it.

Also this week we have a "teach don't touch" seminar. FUN! So, yeah can't wait for that.

and so it begins, (scratch that) continues

So after finishing my run as a student-teacher in college, I am starting a new role as a (grad)student-teacher. I figured this would be a good venue to share the funny, crazy, unique, and memorable stories of the next two years.

So stay tuned, because this will hopefully be hilarious, and not depressing (but who knows).