I have survived the first two days of school with students there! Yay!
My first impressions of the students are that on the whole they seem well behaved and respectful. There were only two minor incidences where students tried to challenge my mentor teacher as she was explaining the rules and such on the first day. She handled it well and did not argue with them. She told me that she had a very hard time with classroom management when she was in her first year of teaching. After that, she went back and took some classes on it and today she doesn’t have much of any problems with students because she has figured out her own style and discovered what works best for her. I do anticipate that this will be an area that I will struggle with. I think that I will have to remember that it is more important to maintain order in the classroom than to seem cool to students or to give them too much power.
I didn’t actually interact much with the students today or yesterday, but I really tried to lend a hand where I could. Organizing papers, stapling worksheets and syllabi, putting the attendance in the computer, answering basic questions, and getting the room ready first thing in the morning.
After the last bell of the first day and all the students were gone the science department head went around with a small bag of candy and chit-chatted with each teacher. He is very energetic and reminds me of my own high school life-science teacher. The other teachers filtered through as if to check up on each other and say congratulations for making through the first of 180 school days! It was fun to see what teachers do when the students are gone. I am watching all this closely because I know there are certain things you are expected to do as a teacher that aren’t discussed in class, such as talking with colleagues after school!
My mentor teacher is really trying to include me when she is planning on what is going on the next day. I am not included to the point of actually helping design a lesson or give input on how things maybe should be taught, but she does let me watch what she is doing and she tries to give explanation about her thinking and why it is she is doing what she is doing. I can tell that I am already getting anxious to start doing things myself. I hope this period of observation-only does not last too long, (it is really boring). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see and hope for the best….
After school was out today we walked over to the high school bookstore and on our way back to the room she said that we are all ready for tomorrow and that the best way to be successful is to plan ahead and know what you are going to do. Then she said, “And I don’t think I’m going to have to worry about that with you!” That was a very nice complement. ☺
Her comment got me to thinking about how every time I have ever had a new teacher I have had to prove myself all over again. This has been true ever since elementary school. I always think to myself, you would have already known that about me if you had talked to my previous teacher. For everyone, so much work goes into making the right impressions and working hard to build up your own reputation whether it be as a student, an employee, a friend, a mentor, a teacher, etc. I think this aspect of having to prove yourself over and over again is more important in education than in other fields. In other fields you may work with the same people and have the same boss for many years. Whereas with teachers and students, each new year brings a new set of people for you to interact with and develop meaningful relationships with. Though a reputation as a student or as a teacher may precede you and color first impressions, I think that ultimately it is the time you spend inside and outside the classroom and the many judgment calls you make on a daily basis that will provide the basis for a reputation. This is good in many ways because it can provide the excitement and opportunity to make each year a new. Like springtime fervent with the hope for new life and what is to come.
This afternoon I commented to my mentor teacher about how she doesn’t have a class website. And she remarked that she would really like to have one but isn’t sure how to do because the class she took on it was a long time ago. She got excited and asked if I knew how to do it and I said that I had done it in one of my classes using Word and that it isn’t really pretty but it gets the job done. I also said there are website programs out there to use that would probably do a better job…. I would use Mac programs to do it but she only has PC’s and I can’t see setting up a website for her on Mac if she can’t keep it up after I’m gone. After all that, she energetically said that maybe that is something we can work on this semester! How fun!
Overall I have had a pretty good first two days and I am excited about the rest of the semester!
My first impressions of the students are that on the whole they seem well behaved and respectful. There were only two minor incidences where students tried to challenge my mentor teacher as she was explaining the rules and such on the first day. She handled it well and did not argue with them. She told me that she had a very hard time with classroom management when she was in her first year of teaching. After that, she went back and took some classes on it and today she doesn’t have much of any problems with students because she has figured out her own style and discovered what works best for her. I do anticipate that this will be an area that I will struggle with. I think that I will have to remember that it is more important to maintain order in the classroom than to seem cool to students or to give them too much power.
I didn’t actually interact much with the students today or yesterday, but I really tried to lend a hand where I could. Organizing papers, stapling worksheets and syllabi, putting the attendance in the computer, answering basic questions, and getting the room ready first thing in the morning.
After the last bell of the first day and all the students were gone the science department head went around with a small bag of candy and chit-chatted with each teacher. He is very energetic and reminds me of my own high school life-science teacher. The other teachers filtered through as if to check up on each other and say congratulations for making through the first of 180 school days! It was fun to see what teachers do when the students are gone. I am watching all this closely because I know there are certain things you are expected to do as a teacher that aren’t discussed in class, such as talking with colleagues after school!
My mentor teacher is really trying to include me when she is planning on what is going on the next day. I am not included to the point of actually helping design a lesson or give input on how things maybe should be taught, but she does let me watch what she is doing and she tries to give explanation about her thinking and why it is she is doing what she is doing. I can tell that I am already getting anxious to start doing things myself. I hope this period of observation-only does not last too long, (it is really boring). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see and hope for the best….
After school was out today we walked over to the high school bookstore and on our way back to the room she said that we are all ready for tomorrow and that the best way to be successful is to plan ahead and know what you are going to do. Then she said, “And I don’t think I’m going to have to worry about that with you!” That was a very nice complement. ☺
Her comment got me to thinking about how every time I have ever had a new teacher I have had to prove myself all over again. This has been true ever since elementary school. I always think to myself, you would have already known that about me if you had talked to my previous teacher. For everyone, so much work goes into making the right impressions and working hard to build up your own reputation whether it be as a student, an employee, a friend, a mentor, a teacher, etc. I think this aspect of having to prove yourself over and over again is more important in education than in other fields. In other fields you may work with the same people and have the same boss for many years. Whereas with teachers and students, each new year brings a new set of people for you to interact with and develop meaningful relationships with. Though a reputation as a student or as a teacher may precede you and color first impressions, I think that ultimately it is the time you spend inside and outside the classroom and the many judgment calls you make on a daily basis that will provide the basis for a reputation. This is good in many ways because it can provide the excitement and opportunity to make each year a new. Like springtime fervent with the hope for new life and what is to come.
This afternoon I commented to my mentor teacher about how she doesn’t have a class website. And she remarked that she would really like to have one but isn’t sure how to do because the class she took on it was a long time ago. She got excited and asked if I knew how to do it and I said that I had done it in one of my classes using Word and that it isn’t really pretty but it gets the job done. I also said there are website programs out there to use that would probably do a better job…. I would use Mac programs to do it but she only has PC’s and I can’t see setting up a website for her on Mac if she can’t keep it up after I’m gone. After all that, she energetically said that maybe that is something we can work on this semester! How fun!
Overall I have had a pretty good first two days and I am excited about the rest of the semester!
You stopped posting updates :( . This makes Jeremy sad.
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