My Teaching Experiences

Well, it's the end of the day on Friday and I'm not exhausted. I think that's a good sign.

Recent inquiries into blogging in general have prompted me to change my system some. Even though I've changed many of the students' names here to "protect the innocent," I've decided to move to something even more ambiguous: First initials only. I don't know if this is necessary, but I want to cover more bases than may be necessary.

I administered the second quiz today. Grades were relatively the same as with the last quiz - except for periods seven and eight. I wonder what it is about those two classes that made them do so much better - an entire grade better. K---- thinks that those two classes are just smarter, and whereas I agree with that to a point, I think that it has more to do with one, I have a better relationship with those two classes and two, by the time I get to seventh, I have practiced the lesson three times already and then had a break. Of course it will be better by the end of the day! The problem now is just trying to figure out how I can possibly expand that to the other periods.

While glancing over my previous posts, I realized that I used the verbs "fear" and "worry" more than I thought. I don't generally fear or worry, but I suppose I do in reflection. I never thought teaching was an "easy" job; that's not why I chose this career path. However, I also didn't anticipate it to be like it is. I really do worry about different students, different lessons, different ideas. It's tough to step in front of 150 students every day and present an idea that took me who-knows-how-long to develop into a lesson plan and risk failure with it every day. I find this especially with my particular third period class. They're my first class of the day, and they're a rough crowd. I have a nice mix of the cool kids, the kids who don't care, and the kids who would rather be doing ANYTHING else other than school in that class. In short: they look at me the entire period like everything I'm saying and doing is the dumbest thing they've ever heard. They don't ask questions, they don't answer questions, they don't get excited about anything. Sometimes I think that the only thing that would make them happy on the whole is if I told them that English was a stupid subject so I wasn't going to make them study it ever again - that instead, they could chat, leave school, smoke pot, basically do whatever they wanted for the 47 minutes they were expected to be in my class. Obviously, that is never going to happen, so instead I have to belabor them with TKAM and other trivial things of that nature. I'm just thankful that the rest of my classes are better.

My Teaching Experiences
I'm a graduate student at Boise State University just starting to work with the school districts. This no-frills blog is my account of my experiences in the school setting. Archives: January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007	Friday, February 23, 2007 Well, it's the end of the day on Friday and I'm not exhausted. I think that's a good sign. Recent inquiries into blogging in general have prompted me to change my system some. Even though I've changed many of the students' names here to "protect the innocent," I've decided to move to something even more ambiguous: First initials only. I don't know if this is necessary, but I want to cover more bases than may be necessary. I administered the second quiz today. Grades were relatively the same as with the last quiz - except for periods seven and eight. I wonder what it is about those two classes that made them do so much better - an entire grade better. K---- thinks that those two classes are just smarter, and whereas I agree with that to a point, I think that it has more to do with one, I have a better relationship with those two classes and two, by the time I get to seventh, I have practiced the lesson three times already and then had a break. Of course it will be better by the end of the day! The problem now is just trying to figure out how I can possibly expand that to the other periods. While glancing over my previous posts, I realized that I used the verbs "fear" and "worry" more than I thought. I don't generally fear or worry, but I suppose I do in reflection. I never thought teaching was an "easy" job; that's not why I chose this career path. However, I also didn't anticipate it to be like it is. I really do worry about different students, different lessons, different ideas. It's tough to step in front of 150 students every day and present an idea that took me who-knows-how-long to develop into a lesson plan and risk failure with it every day. I find this especially with my particular third period class. They're my first class of the day, and they're a rough crowd. I have a nice mix of the cool kids, the kids who don't care, and the kids who would rather be doing ANYTHING else other than school in that class. In short: they look at me the entire period like everything I'm saying and doing is the dumbest thing they've ever heard. They don't ask questions, they don't answer questions, they don't get excited about anything. Sometimes I think that the only thing that would make them happy on the whole is if I told them that English was a stupid subject so I wasn't going to make them study it ever again - that instead, they could chat, leave school, smoke pot, basically do whatever they wanted for the 47 minutes they were expected to be in my class. Obviously, that is never going to happen, so instead I have to belabor them with TKAM and other trivial things of that nature. I'm just thankful that the rest of my classes are better.