My week at E.P.H has been one full of many new experiences.
Some were good and others, well, not so good. Overall, it has been enlightening but at the same time it was somewhat what I expected it to be.
My CT teacher seems to be involved in everything at this school which is great. It has allowed me to meet many different people within the school. One of her extra activities is to help judge the senior projects. I was able to sit in on this process, observe the presentation and the grading procedure. The projects were very involved and included a mentorship, a paper, a visual and oral presentation. There are four evaluators judging this project. Their evaluation decides whether or not the students graduate. The teacher in charge asked me to come back in May and sit in on the process and then have lunch with them. I agreed.
I also had the
opportunity to assist with the monitoring of an assembly of 9th graders for a lecture about their
future, after high school. While this seems like an ordinary experience
to me it was surreal. Taking on the role of a teacher has been something
I have been planning for a long time. However, when I was monitoring the
students it felt a little awkward because I couldn't help but remember being
that student sitting in assembly who was more interested in talking to
my friends and flirting with that cute boy in the next row. Even though I
planned on stepping into this role, I did not account for flash back to the
past. I couldn't help but silently giggle to myself.
The week definitely did not come without its challenges though. I was gearing up to co-teach on Friday for the first time. To my dismay the school closed on Thursday and Friday due to water damage. E.P.H has block schedules so I am losing a lot of class time. My planner is pushed back about a week. I guess this is part of teaching though, rolling with the punches. In a way, it is an invaluable lesson, that nothing will ever go perfectly and you kinda need to plan for that. So currently, I am tweaking my lesson plans and we will go on from there. I'm hoping that school will be back in session on Monday. I'm secretly hoping to learn more nuggets of teaching wisdom.
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I think student teaching has really been an eye-opener for the smaller things that don't really occur to you when you are at RIC planning lessons in a vacuum. Certain students never show up for class, there are snow days, assemblies, PD, and a multitude of other issues that get in the way of the main reason we are in the school in the first place: teaching kids!!
ReplyDeleteI actually dealt with a similar issue. I was supposed to teach Friday but due to unfortunate circumstances I wasn't able to do my lesson. But I think it's awesome that you are using the time to reflect and revise on your initial plans. Best of luck tomorrow!
Lisa, welcome to the blog!! I think it's awesome that your teacher is involved in the school. Hopefully she will be able to model how to balance responsibilities of teaching with responsiblities of her other activities. As a student who has always been involved in sports teams, academic groups, and leadership groups, I can't wait to be involved as a teacher. I think pushing yourself beyond the every day duties keeps you on your toes and provides a better perspective of school culture. I think that being involved will help me be a better teacher too because students will see another side of me and I will be able to see another side of them.
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