Teaching Journey

Well, lettme tell ya, this teaching thing has been full of surprises and learning about myself more than about teaching! After my last post in August (I know, so long ago; but I've been busy), I continued to observe that class for a few weeks.  I learned during that 6wk. class that most horror stories you hear about teaching and classrooms all stem from how the teacher handles the class.  I have never seen such lazy, irrisponsible, filthy mouthed, trashy dressing kids in my life! Why did they listen to music on their headphones while the teacher was teaching, walked around and talked to each other during lessons, were happy that they made a 12/100 on a test so dumbed down a 2nd grader could have taken it......why? Because the teacher did not have control over the classroom.  She let them do these things.  I was exhausted after I did my little 10hrs. of observing!  Now, I will say with a bit of pride, that when I taught a lesson, they paid more attention.  Hmmm, I wonder if it was because I did all the things they tell you not to do: call out the kids, raise my voice, etc.  I didn't give them the answers either. 

No wonder why America has gone to pot like it has.  These kids don't learn anything at school!  Most schools these days dumb down the material and let the kids get away with so much! Now, this isn't true of all schools...it is very much dependent upon the district.  The district depends on geographic area.  The school I was just takling about was in a poorer district.  I don't know if this made the difference in the kids' performance because the parents were not well educated and influenced their children not to care about school.  Which is very likely. 

Now, in the school I observed the next 6wks, the geographic area was a step higher in terms of income.  This school also has a huge number of foreign students because it has one of the best Structured English Immersion programs in the state.  One of these classes is the class I was observing by the way.  The students are extremely motivated to learn, the academic standards are higher, and the parents seem more involved.  I taught one lesson to the students and didn't have to raise my voice or call out any student, etc.  The kids paid attention to my mentor teacher also.  She had complete control of the class and made them feel comfortable enough to be able to trust and confide in her as well as be motivated to learn from her. 

This was a great change of pace and reminded me that, yes there is hope yet.  It was interesting to see how motivated these immigrant kids were.  Most were refugees from the Middle East and Nepal.  One girl cried because she got a "C" on a quiz! Hmm, that sounds like something I would have done, haha.  The parents are also very involved and attend classes of their own in the evenings to learn English. 

So, I'm done with school until January when I start my student teaching.  I'm doing my student teaching in a middle school, 7th grade general science class.  Since I have not passed the AZ education test in biology (yes, that was my major in college! Lettme tell ya, a lot of biology majors I know can't pass the test it's so ridiculous!)...I have to teach middle school general science.  I'm not sure it will be all that bad actually.  I met with the teacher at the school's math & science night, and it seemed like so much fun! Middle schoolers are old enough where you don't have to be their Momma, but young enough so that they are impressionable with good behavior.  I'm kinda excited about it! Definitely look forward to more of this adventure in the spring!