Day 2 & 3

I'm exhausted...  It's been a long few days.  But there were some definite, um,  highlights.

• Two girls singing "I Kissed a Girl" back and forth during class.  Literally every time the teacher turned around.      Girl 1: "I kissed a girl and I liked it..."       Girl 2: "I kissed a girl, just tryin it..."   Hysterical.  Took everything I had not to laugh.
• Girl 1 (same one): "Mister, can I write on the board for you because you write sloppy?"     Mr. K: "Oh, I write sloppy?  Thank you for telling me."  (Imagine this w/ a thick African accent).
• Mr. K: "I see why you find math so hard...  you don't pay attention when the teacher is talking."

Just saying, this guy has a bad attitude.  Meanwhile, the 1st ten minutes of the next class my Fellow Visitor (FV) came to observe.  He was supposed to be there the first period but he was very late.  He was supposed to stay for 30 minutes or so, but instead he stayed about 10.  Then, we debriefed (I kid you not) about what we both observed.  Sure, maybe I was a bit harsh, but I had also just watched this guy in action for the prior 2 days destroying these kids' motivation.  The FV is giving this guy a GREAT rating, so I'm just saying if I don't get one when he rates me...  I'll be pissed as hell.

Ok, time for bed.  It's late.

Day 1, Pt. 2

Well, it's the very end of my day now...  so I'm going to keep it brief.

First off, I'm student teaching math.  There were 3 special ed fellows and one special ed position.  Good times.  I volunteered for math though, I actually like it.   :)  I'm a dork, I know.   The basics anyhow, but that's what this class appears to be.  No calculus here, thank goodness.  I'm assigned to Mr. K, whose teaching style is....   special?  Let's just put it this way, we're not in NYCTF classes anymore Toto.  He broke every rule within the first............  10 minutes?   That sounds about right.

Some favorite teacher quotes:

• "You'd better respect me!  I've been teaching since before you were born!"
• "You've all failed this already, if you keep this up, you'll fail it again!"
• "This is eaaaaasy.  Don't worry about it...."

(This was of course directly followed by  the student response of, "If it was easy, I wouldn't be here."  Mr. K followed to notice or at the least acknowledge this one).

Most of the day I spent at the FRONT of the class (thanks for that one Mr. K) with the students yelling at me...  "Hey Miss!  Hey Miss!  Who you?  What you doin here?  You a teacher too?  You gonna teach us too?  Hey Miss!  Can I borrow a pen?"

That about sums it up.  And on that note...  I'm off to bed to rest up for tomorrow.  :)

1st Day of Student Teaching, Pt 1

Ok, NYCTF, let's see if the past 2 weeks of summer pre-service training have done ANYthing to prepare me for today!  Other than scare the living bejesus out of me.

I woke up  5 minutes before my alarm....  which was set for 6am...   a mere 5 hours after I attempted to sleep and probably only about 4.5 hours from when I actually fell asleep.   Hm.  I'm running on pure adrenaline at the moment.   Mental note, leave early enough to buy a LARGE coffee on the way.  Luckily my 6am wake-up allows for plenty of time, especially considering how close I am to school.

Ok, better use this time to get ready...  rather than avoid it by writing.  But I decided to chronicle this, so here goes...