today i got a call from 2 former students... it made my day!!
they were telling me that their new school is hard and that it is too strict!! I laughed at that one. my best student from last year also told me that she managed to land herself in ISS since she got in an argument with another girl from our class last year. i laughed when she told me, because i was not at all surprised.
anyways, today otherwise was good and bad. i actually am enjoying teaching american history. it surprises me how little many of the kids know american history... lots of the kids actually get the civil war confused with the revolutionary war... so... that's interesting. today i had two of my am hist classes and i gave them out a project to work on, and they did WONDERFUL! i loved seeing them work and get excited about it, and get RIGHT to work. of course, today's two periods generally don't have as many management issues as tomorrow's two periods. my world history classes, on the other hand, are QUITE a handful. today they were NOT fun. my other prep of world can be wonderful, but there are lots of talkers in there, i just need to give them LOTS of hands-on things to keep them occupied.
tomorrow, though, should be interesting. since we have a heat advisory we are being dismissed at 11 am (well the kids are). so i'm only going to see my periods 5-8 for half the time i usually do and then won't see them on Friday since we will again dismiss at 11. this heat is going to be the end of me. i'm over it.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
acting
i've decided that teaching is at least 75% acting. the persona i put on in my classroom is not always the same person i am in real life. i'm sure my students think i'm nuts (i sing in class?!), but it also helps me keep a better attitude about things. if i'm not postive and excited about something, the students definitely won't be! it's incredibly important right now too. my school doesn't have air conditioning... YIKES. it's been really, really warm in my room. i start the day and i can feel sweat dripping down my back! ick. tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.
oh well. so far i'm enjoying my new position, although it's a completely different experience! there are lots of things that i have not been prepared for (large, all school assemblies lasting through one of my periods), but some things just don't change (students in general). i'm also still playing catch up i feel. since i didn't get placed until basically the friday before school started on monday, i wasn't able to do much/any planning. i personally like knowing where i am going long-term (and i know that many of you are saying here.. uh, katherine... you teach history, it's obvious where you are going!!!) i disagree. i like ahving a concrete map of where i will be going and how i will get there. what skills will they be doing? what will they need to know by the end of the unit? what do they need to know to set them up for the next one? i have none of that in place at the moment, so it's making my lesson planning seem a little disjointed i think.
oh well, tomorrow volleyball has been cancelled (heat advisory and no a/c = very very hot gym) so i'm going to try to get my life together!!!
oh well. so far i'm enjoying my new position, although it's a completely different experience! there are lots of things that i have not been prepared for (large, all school assemblies lasting through one of my periods), but some things just don't change (students in general). i'm also still playing catch up i feel. since i didn't get placed until basically the friday before school started on monday, i wasn't able to do much/any planning. i personally like knowing where i am going long-term (and i know that many of you are saying here.. uh, katherine... you teach history, it's obvious where you are going!!!) i disagree. i like ahving a concrete map of where i will be going and how i will get there. what skills will they be doing? what will they need to know by the end of the unit? what do they need to know to set them up for the next one? i have none of that in place at the moment, so it's making my lesson planning seem a little disjointed i think.
oh well, tomorrow volleyball has been cancelled (heat advisory and no a/c = very very hot gym) so i'm going to try to get my life together!!!
Monday, August 15, 2011
and it begins!
so today was the first day of the 2011-2012 school year!
as some of you might have been aware, i did not have a job all summer. when it came time to get a placement in august it was absolute chaos!! i got placed at one school where i would have taught grades 9-12 social studies. that lasted about 24 hours, and went back to middle school english where i was placed at a magnet middle school for all of an HOUR, then switched to a different high school where i would have taught juniors and seniors english, then switched within the same school to the social studies department.
my final position is ninth grade american history, tenth grade world history, and ninth grade study skills teacher. whew.
all ican say is that it was an interesting week, full of ups and downs.
anyways.. this school is going to be MUCH different than my old school. for starters i have about 150 kids, as opposed to 19 last year (just saying this makes me laugh haha). tomorrow i will also teach ALL day, except for my 30 min lunch, which is a change from last year. i had a plan period every day last year (aka an hour of no teaching every day).
i also signed up to help coach volleyball today, so that will start tomorrow. we'll see how that goes!
all in all, not a bad day. i was sad though that i couldn't see any of my kids... iwas jealous of all the teachers who knew students and had students excited to see them! i have been thinking about them all day!!
as some of you might have been aware, i did not have a job all summer. when it came time to get a placement in august it was absolute chaos!! i got placed at one school where i would have taught grades 9-12 social studies. that lasted about 24 hours, and went back to middle school english where i was placed at a magnet middle school for all of an HOUR, then switched to a different high school where i would have taught juniors and seniors english, then switched within the same school to the social studies department.
my final position is ninth grade american history, tenth grade world history, and ninth grade study skills teacher. whew.
all ican say is that it was an interesting week, full of ups and downs.
anyways.. this school is going to be MUCH different than my old school. for starters i have about 150 kids, as opposed to 19 last year (just saying this makes me laugh haha). tomorrow i will also teach ALL day, except for my 30 min lunch, which is a change from last year. i had a plan period every day last year (aka an hour of no teaching every day).
i also signed up to help coach volleyball today, so that will start tomorrow. we'll see how that goes!
all in all, not a bad day. i was sad though that i couldn't see any of my kids... iwas jealous of all the teachers who knew students and had students excited to see them! i have been thinking about them all day!!
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