Week 2 Complete

What a week! It was definitely a rollercoaster. I had great days, bad class periods... nervous days, relaxed days. The four-day week seemed longer than a normal five-day week. One of the best elements about student teaching is that it is never mundane-- ever.

Monday was a great day. Although my junior class has been testing my patience, for the most part the students are doing the work that they need to do. During my one senior class Monday we started reading Hamlet. And believe me when I say this, they were not thrilled one bit. I have been struggling trying to figure out of how in-depth I should go with the text. If I touch just the surface level information, the students will not become involved with the text or characters, in the end not caring. However, if I dig really deep, the students might become a tad confused. Act 1 scene 1 of Hamlet, and although it is extremely short, it took the entire period to get through just the first scene. Some students did find it interesting, others were confused, and a few just didn't care. But overall, the majority of the single senior class I taught Monday understood-- yay.

Tuesday I had two wonderul and FUN periods-- the last period not so much. The first two periods are my favorite periods for vastly different reasons, but I truly enjoy both of them. The first period is a little quiet, most of them were AP students junior year, but wanted to take a year off before hitting the books hard in college. These students care and do well, thus the conversations are interesting and become quite intense. The period of it has so much energy, fun, and make me laugh. Because I have mostly males in this class, it can be difficult to quiet them down, but they do respect me and even if they don't care about Hamlet they do listen and want to do well.

One side story about this period. Not today Friday, but the Friday before the majority of the students in this period were having a bad day. They were not going to focus long enough unless I let them talk, letting out their frustration. I told them that for one minute, all of them could yell, scream, cry, whatever they want to, but they had to give me their full attention after. As the minute started, the principal walked in to say hi. He heard through the grapevine I had started full-time teaching. Brian (principal) walked over to me, I said hi and told him what they were doing. He laughed and said okay that is perfectly fine. He and I talked a few minutes more, then he left. About a half hour later, he walks back in as the students were analyzing The Dark Knight, comparing the movie with the characteristics of a tragedy. Brian said, "this is awesome, I wish I could stay and listen to this lesson!" I was feeling pretty good about that entire situation. Since this period has about 6 senior boy basketball players in it, their last game was Saturday. I decided to go, give support (as you are supposed to). One of my best friend's little brother is also on the basketball team, his parents were nice enough to let me sit with them during the game. After the game I saw Brian, went to say hello. He asked me how the rest of the period went on Friday because he said, "those boys have a ton of energy, looked like you were doing well with them. I am not going to lie, I came back to check on you, making sure you were still alive." I just replied with, "oh those boys are great, lots of energy, but I can definitely handle it. I love a class with that much energy." Anyways, Brian was happy I came, he said that the boys were going to appreciate me coming-- they definitely did.

Getting back to this past week. My last period Tuesday definitely tested my buttons. These students just don't care in general. Some do, but for the most part they do not. I have been struggling with them. As we started Hamlet on Tuesday, I knew it was going to be a war in terms of keeping their attention. Throughout the lesson, I kept demanding their attention. Half way through, I stopped because they were not respecting me and if they do not want to hear it to become successful, I will not waste my time to teach the lesson. As I turned on the movie to visualize and listen to the first scene, I was hoping these students would sit and listen. However, I was totally wrong. One student found a stick. I am still clueless as to where he found it, others were throwing paper, some were talking, etc... As each second ticked by, my blood pressure was rising. The movie clip ended with 10 minutes left. When I was turning on the lights, students were putting up their chairs to leave, at that time I blew up. I yelled, "NO! PUT THOSE CHAIRS DOWN NOW! SIT DOWN YOU HAVE 10 MINUTES LEFT! WE ARE NOT FINISHED!" And when I say I yelled, little meek Jen yelled loudly. These students just looked at me and all sat down at once. For the next 10 minutes remaining, these students receieved a lecture about respect. I will ouline my lecture for you...
1) If I am talking, it is important. I am not talking to listen to myself talk. You need to be quiet and listen.
2) I know Hamlet, I am not here to teach myself about this text, I am teaching you. You need to listen and learn.
3) If you cannot respect property, me, and peers that want to learn then leave because you are wasting my time and other people's time.
4) I am disappointed in all of you because I see so much potential that is not being used.
5) You have lost my respect because you are acting like children, thus will be treated as that until you gain my respect back. That will be difficult to do.
6) Tomorrow is a fresh start, I expect you to come in with a different attitude.
7) There will be consequences for your actions-- if you have actions that are good, the consequence will be good. If it is bad, then you will have a bad consequence to expect. Expectations are high, you need to exceed these expectations.
Anyways, those students all left in silence. The next day they all were on their best behavior. There are two students who I am starting to get through to. But, that is for another blog.

Yesterday was another break through with two junior girls who were testing me. Both asked if they could use the restroom. Since they are both friends, I told they could go one at a time. I went to another student to help, and apparently both left. They didn't go just to the restroom, they decided to go to the student store to buy, I think they were juices or something... iced tea, who knows. It doesn't really matter. Why? 1) Because students are not allowed to have open drinks in class because there are laptops around 2) They did not ask to go 3) Disrespected me. What did I do one might ask. WELL, after they sat down, I finished helping the student I was working with. Walked over and said, "I did not tell you that you both could go to the bathroom together. I did not tell you that you could go buy drinks from the student store. You are not allowed to have open drinks in this class because of the laptops that are being used. This is not acceptable. You disrespected me and the rules." So, I picked up the drinks and threw them in the trash. My cooperating teacher looked at me and smiled. As I walked past the girls, one said, "I don't care, it was only $2." I figured that didn't deserve a response, I continued to another student's desk. She said a little louder, "I SAID, I don't care." A little later, I went back to their desks because they were putting on makeup instead of working on their research project. Because they already had a week to produce part of it, I told them they needed to turn in something to me for points. What did they turn in? Nothing, they didn't have anything done. They get zero's. My cooperating teacher said that I was able to take that action because the majority of the other students had their work turned in.

Anyways, that is just about it for now.