As the semester at USD comes to a close I am already feeling the frustrations and once perceived "big deals" more manageable obstacles to hurdle over. Teaching is a whole new direction I have taken the last year and I realize that past and future challenges are opportunities for growth. Like anything else, if you want to be good and understand something time is an essential ingredient for understanding your strengths and weaknesses. I know at some point I will miss being in the classroom during the upcoming break, but for now I am going to enjoy the pause and live life a bit slower than the past several months.
I was a little nervous coming back from the Thanksgiving break. It was much needed, but when Monday morning came I found myself nervous because I felt I had been out of practice. I finally got in a groove a interaction with the students and then I had a week off where I did not think for more than a few minutes about teaching. I once told my cooperating teacher that I learn best by being thrown in the deep end of the pool and when I relayed my worries in the morning, that is exactly what she did. She had some catching up to do with a few students writing a script for a play they will perform for the whole school and actual theater judges and gave me control of the class the whole day. By the end of the day I felt like I was back on the horse. By the end of the third day I felt like that was my best experiences as a student-teacher.
The end of last week and this week so far has been a different story. My best days of student-teaching were immediately followed by the ones I do not care too much for. The students are responsible for constructing, painting, lighting, costumes, pretty much anything that has to do with putting on a play, and all from scratch. Their previous track record on group projects does not bode well for them. They wait until the very last minute, and when they do realize they cannot finish the blame game starts. I am committed to not having that happen for this project because not only do I not want my cooperating teacher to look bad, I don't want them to be put in a position of embarassment in front of the whole school and professional judges. The date is set and invitations have been sent, their is no time to make things up. As of today they are already a few days behind of where past students have been able to pull it off, and we just started! Last week I was a lesson planner/implementer and had a great time teaching because I felt they had fun learning (for the most part). Now I ask the same questions over and over "What are you working on?" "Why aren't you doing your task?" etc...Granted, sometimes the reason is valid, bust most of the time it is they just find ways to avoid doing their work. But that is enough venting for now. Tomorrow will be better! |