WEDNESDAY:
Great first day. I was a pretty nervous and a bit intimidated so I decided to ease the weirdness with an open Q & A session at the beginning of each block. My cooperating teacher has an openness with her students that I wanted to emulate and thought a little background info on the person taking over their class would help. I have to say it worked. Period 1/2 had their chance and once it was over they went right to work. Quietly. A little too quietly but I wasn't going to complain. I proceeded with the lesson plans and they followed directions quietly and efficiently.
Then came period 3/4. By this time it was closer to 11pm and they were wide awake and ready for lunch, in other words, pretty rowdy. During the Q & A they asked some pretty good questions, a few of them a little too personal to answer. I stayed with them a bit longer because they were really engaged, but no matter how many questions I answered they had more. I finally realized that I could turn this into my advantage. I told them if they were on task for the whole period I would answer some of the more personal questions. A feat I was sure they were not able to accomplish. I was wrong. So being true to my word, I reserved the last 5 minutes for another Q & A round. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty good. I completed everything my teacher had planned and was even able to get a head start on the next day's assignments. The sense of accomplishment i felt this first day was unexpected, which makes it all the more better.
THURSDAY:
The honeymoon is over. I really have to change my teaching style. Luckily I was able to get ahead yesterday because today I fell behind. They owned me. Everything I wanted to do like explain a journal entry or just make an announcement was an ordeal.Both blocks ran the show and I was barely able to keep up. For the first time a teacher who pops her head to make sure I'm doing alright had to say something. And they listened to her. Definitely felt like a sub today.
FRIDAY:
Well, I made the changes I wanted and it worked miracles. To go from the Wednesday high to a complete crash by Thursday's end was very disheartening, but my changes worked. The first thing I did yesterday after school was to get a hair cut. The voluminous hair look was not cutting it. Next was to find my stopwatch that I used in my coaching days. Then I began each block with a basic I'm not taking any B.S. today speech. I told them what went down yesterday was never going to happen again and each time I felt they were not paying attention they would be timed. Any time they took away from me was time I would take away from their lunch. To make it even better, the same teacher who had to save my butt yesterday left me an encouraging sticky note on her way out today because of the dramatic change from yesterday. Students were engaged and on task, finally! Without telling the kids, I made the decision to take anytime from my stopwatch that exceeded a minute and a half out of their lunch. Both classes ended up with around 45 seconds of the amount of time I needed to get their attention. I was kind of an asshole, but at the end of the day the students respected me.
MONDAY:
To add to my shortened hair look, I decided not to shave this morning or the day before. I wish I started this on Wednesday because by now I would have at least the beginnings of a beard forming. Anything to look older and more authoritative is my goal. And I am glad to say it continued into today. Not only was I able to catch up the class to where my cooperating expects them to be when she gets back, but I was able to practice a mini lesson plan for one of my classes. These past few days have been tremendous for me. 8 months ago I had no inkling on becoming a teacher and now I am teaching 9th grade humanities solo. No one came in to check on me today. Either they forgot or felt I didn't need back up, whatever the case, the director came in and gave me an approving look and left. Awesome last few days, even the dreaded Thursday. Even though I had the best time teaching these students, I am relieved my cooperating teacher comes back tomorrow. The added stress of teaching and night school is a tough one and I very much look forward to the days when I can spend ALL my energies into a classroom.