An eventfull day

So where to begin with today's lessons learned? First off, if there is a student "protest" going on you cannot get any teaching done. And speaking of protesting, these kids don't know what they're doing. In my day we knew how to protest. Walking around the halls with signs about the budget and teacher cuts making noise is not protesting. Unless there was news cameras or reporters there it was pretty much pointless, an excuse to act out. I appreciate the sentiment but it's also a good reason by these kids should be taking more political classes or history at the very least so they can learn about how to do this stuff right! At least their signs were mostly spelled right. That would have been awkward. "SAVE R TAECHERS!"

Next, parent teacher conferences. Would have been fine except I had to be at the school from 7:00AM until 9:30PM, minus the time I had to leave to get cleaned up after breaking up a fight. Why you ask? Because my co-operating teacher decided to break up a two on one fight and with his bad shoulder I couldn't just leave him there by himself so I jumped in, ruined a good shirt too. Lesson learned, if they want to fight, they're going to fight, nothing you can do about it. If you restrain them, they will still try to fight and the other one will try to take a couple free shots. Why? Because they are dicks that's why.

The conferences went well though. Met the parents of some students, but many of the parents I wanted to come didn't of course. But that's the way it is, good students drag their parents to speak with their teachers so they can be showered with praise, bad students they don't give a shit either way. At least the bar afterward was fun, probably over did it a bit, but what can you do?

PK

Next Up - Parent Teacher Conferences

So lets see how many of them actually show up. My guess 20 tops. Although it should be interesting being stuck at the school from 7AM until 9:30 PM that night.

With all the work that goes into this job I sometimes wonder why I doing it at all. What with the weekends spent lesson planning, nights grading, early mornings teaching, students not doing their work, security not coming when you need them. Then I remember its for the job that's not available anywhere in the district.

At least I'm almost done with next week's lesson plans already. Now time to get something to drink.

Also why is it only the kids that are already getting A's that come to you worried about their grades? I mean seriously, was I that annoying? I suppose the answer is yes.

~PK

Haters

Today I learned that you can learn a lot about a school's student population from the t-shirts they where. For example there seems to be 5 types of students at my school:

Haters
Those who are loved by haters.
Those who are hated by haters.
Those who love haters.
Those who hate haters.

I also learned that union meetings make me feel like I finally found the front to a war that I've been looking for for a long time. I have also now enabled people who are not members of the site to post comments in case anyone out there is actually reading this.

~PK

First Observation

Went well today. I learned however, if you want students to do something find a way to bribe them. Candy is good but extra credit on tests or quizzes is usually what they crave.

Other lessons learned so far:

1. Student-teaching is like going to jail. The best way to survive is to find the one that will give you the most trouble and kick them out.

2. Students are lazy.

3. Students are lazy.

4. You have to repeat things for them constantly.

5. Kids like to role play the Constitutional Convention. Which makes an odd site when they leave class angry because the slaves won their freedom in the class Constitutional Convention. Could have been awkward to explain if there was a fight.

Until next time. Drink it if you got it.

First Week

I can't/won't get into specifics about where I teach, who my co-operating teachers are, or who my students are as I don't want legal or employment issues. But I can say this, after a week of student teaching I've come to six realizations:

1. Teachers are just like students in high schools, they tend to socialize with other members of their "clicks," in this case "clicks" are content areas.

2. Students test new teachers for weaknesses much like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park tested the electric fence around it's enclosure.

3. I love having a captive audience. Nothing like forcing seniors to realize that if they fail your class they can't graduate.

4. Freshmen have no idea how to take notes and seniors don't care enough to take notes.

5. Teaching is equal parts educating the students, managing the students and entertaining yourself. Also, Simpson references can be helpful with all three.

6. Caffeine is for when your mind won't fall asleep before midnight but your body needs to be up to teach by 6 AM.