Trouble

I know it happens to everyone, but when you get your first trouble student, its really hard to deal with. It's a constant battle between wanting to do your best for the kid and inspire them to learn and wanting them out of your class because of the constant disruption.

This one student is capable of ruining your lesson for everyone so is it worth it to have them in your room? I want to say "yes." I want to say I'll go all Dead Poets Society on him and change his educational life forever. I also want to say "get him the hell out of my room."

I know its only week two, but its hard to have that kind of influence in your room. It also doesn't help that when I ask other teachers how they've dealt with him in the past they give me a solemn glance, pat me on the shoulder, and say that they've tried everything and nothing has worked.

I'm doing my best to figure out how to fix the problem, but I doubt I'll have him standing on the desk shouting "O' Captain my Captain" this year.

To Tangent or Not to Tangent?

Something I'm learning as a teacher is that a good deal of the time when a student raises his/her hand, something comes out that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the topic of conversation. It's gotten to the point that with one of my students, I've started using the phrase, "Is this relevant?" before I let her answer questions.

Now I know I should be there to allow their creativity to flow, and a big part of their job as students is to learn how to express themselves and their ideas. However, a girl in my class that has to tell me she "got Mexican stickers today" or the kid who says "power bracelets really do work cause that guy at the mall tried to push me over when I was wearing it and he couldn't" is not really a part of my lesson plan. We have a lot to accomplish in 50 minutes, and I'm not sure that it's vital that we all find out that "the lifespan of a clone is shorter than the thing its cloned from."

When do I let the non-sequiturs in and when do I stop them? Sometimes its nice to take a break from teaching to listen to this stuff, but I mostly don't want to spend our time learning that a kid's "Spanish name" is "Pablo Pepper."

The 7th Period Conundrum

The whole day has been going well. First period was gracious and quiet for the simple and fun day in class. My 6th graders actually used their time to do their homework like they were supposed to. Both my engineering classes had working technology (finally), and everyone sat quietly and worked on their projects. The Advanced Theatre class had good questions and spent their time wisely as they looked for new pieces to work on. Then came 7th period...

I remember 7th period on Fridays in school. Unless it was a class I loved I was just ready to leave, and sometimes even if I loved the class, I still wanted out. Those feelings have clearly carried on in the minds of students into the year 2011. It's only natural. You've sat in the school for 40 some odd hours this week, and you are tired of it. The magic of the weekend is nearly at your fingertips so you start to act like a caged monkey. My guess is that if 7th period, yesterday, had lasted twenty minutes longer, the kids probably would have started throwing their poo.

As a teacher, though, how do you reconcile those completely natural actions with the fact that those kids still really need to do what you have planned and get something from it? My best attempt, yesterday, was to play fun theatre games that they could learn something from without knowing it. My best attempt, yesterday, failed.

Maybe next Friday I should bring in some bananas.

Ugh.

This has been the longest, shortest week of my life....Ex-haus-ted.

Technology: Friend or Foe?

My experience with school technology thus far is as follows:

Day 1: I need to get my curriculum off the computer. The computer doesn't turn on.

Day 2: The computer works! Now I need to show a short movie in class. The projector only projects 1/4 of the screen.

Day 3: Projector works! Time to do a project where the students do research on the internet. None of the students know their usernames or passwords.

I assume by sometime in November everything will be working.

That being said, our CTA (campus tech....something) has been amazing! Those people do some amazing things and should get more credit!

Blur

Day 2. Come and gone already. Maybe it's a combination of less sleep, more work, talking kids, and the fear that I'm not doing a good job, but I can't remember anything that happened today.

My memories of today in list form:

1st period - A student made a comment about watching Pawn Stars before class started. I liked that.
2nd period - I sat at my computer doing.....some kind of work.
3rd period - Nine kids asked to go to the bathroom.
4th period - The projector didn't work right.
5th period - I fixed the projector.
6th period - I don't really remember anything. I do know that I really like those kids.
7th period - It was 3 hours ago, and I've got nothing.

The nice thing about it is that I have this feeling that, overall, today was very successful! I guess it doesn't really matter all that much if I can't remember much, as long as the kids remember what I said.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I just remembered something! Middle schoolers are AWFUL at cheating!

I gave a pre-test today just to find out what they already knew about Theatre. Under normal circumstances I would have them turn in their tests when they finished, but since it wasn't for a grade, I just waited until everyone finished and then gathered the pre-test from their tables.

One of the questions was "Name 3 of Shakespeare's plays." As I was looking through them to see how they did, I got back 4 tests in a row that said, "1. Romeo and Juliet 2. Hamlet 3. Odesia"

ODESIA! What?!?! Even if you don't know Shakespeare, ODESIA??? And to have 4 kids at a table write it? I have to have a little talk with them.

The title

I guess I should explain my title. I'm a theatre teacher. Well, I'm a theatre teacher who also teaches an engineering course. Well, I'm a first-year theatre teacher who also teaches an engineering course.

Anyway, its hard to really feel like a teacher, yet, even though I am. I look up and down the halls and feel like I'm not old enough to be in charge. I work hard, though. I'm as prepared as I think I can be. It just sometimes feels like I haven't been officially sworn in to the world of teaching. I half expect someone to walk through the door and say, "Ok, thanks for keepin' an eye on them for me. Have a good one."

I am a teacher though. My badge says so.

Even though I still don't feel like a full-fledged teacher, I am trying my best to make my classes a worthwhile place for these kids. Hence "Acting Like a Teacher or Doing My Best To Make A Difference In My First Year."

First Day

Wow. Sitting here thinking about my first day as a real teacher, I can't believe the day is over already. I can't believe I believe that; I was at school from 7:45 til 6, and I didn't have time to eat lunch. It's absolutely amazing how much a teacher has to do. I have a feeling it will get easier actually. I just want to get ahead now before I can't catch up. I did get a 5 dollar gift card to Starbucks though!

Also, I would like to take this time to officially apologize to all my teachers. I'm sorry I wouldn't stop talking, and I'm sorry I made very loud sarcastic comments in class (even though most of them were actually pretty funny).