Adventures of a Teacher in Transition

1.  I gained like, 5 or 6 followers overnight. I have no idea how that happened, but WELCOME and THANK YOU. Feel free to send me a message and say hi!

2. My feet and thighs hurt, but I’ll get used to being on my feet all day, I’m sure. I need to find new flats that actually have good soles, or get some of those sole inserts.

3.  My honors classes went pretty well today. Ben only had a few constructive things to say and said that I did pretty awesome for my first real day in front of them. A couple of boys in second hour were testing me by talking while I was talking or while other people were talking, but I did my best to nip it in the butt (or is it bud? I never know). We’ll see how tomorrow goes.  I’m not really worried about teaching persuasive speeches to the honors; I’m really worried about teaching Cuckoo’s Nest. 

4.  Ben is letting me tell him when to get out of the classroom and leave me alone. I’m used to being alone because I’ve been alone with my freshmen (and my regular sophomores) for weeks now. But I do want to get feedback on how I’m doing. But I hate being watched. But I know I need to get used to being observed. ahhhhh 

5. Ben and Scott are going to work harder to get me internet on my laptop. It’s just super annoying to not have access, because I end up having to take attendance on my phone once school gets out and I can go outside (no service in the building), but then it’s late because it should be in by the time school’s out. It’s just annoying.

girlwithalessonplan:

watchallisonteach:

Scary thought!

So here’s what I’m teaching right now:

Freshmen: Romeo and Juliet
Sophomore (H): Persuasive Speeches
Sophomore (R): Persuasive Speeches (just way slower than honors)

But before I know it, I’ll be starting One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with the honors, so I’ve gotta get reading that. 

Your day sounds like my every days.

Well I’m in good company then!

Scary thought!

So here’s what I’m teaching right now:

Freshmen: Romeo and Juliet
Sophomore (H): Persuasive Speeches
Sophomore (R): Persuasive Speeches (just way slower than honors)

But before I know it, I’ll be starting One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with the honors, so I’ve gotta get reading that. 

I have 7 Shakespeare Scavenger Hunt worksheets to create and two days of Persuasive speech lessons to plan, since I have to make sub plans for Tuesday.

And I need to watch the Oscars tonight.

Adios!

There has been an influx of support on my failed MLA lesson and I really appreciate it! 

I’m completely finishing my poetry unit on Monday with a poetry slam. It’ll be a fun way to finish it out since they’ve taken their exam already.

Then Tuesday I’m starting Romeo and Juliet. But I can’t be there because I have to go to a job fair that’s mandated by my education program. So the students will be in the computer lab starting a Shakespeare Online Scavenger Hunt as a way to learn about him in a fun, non-lecture way. There will be 5-6 groups which each focus on different parts of his life and work and then they’ll teach it to the rest of the class. FUN!

I will admit. I’m excited for all the fun activities that I want to do with R&J. I’m just terrified of the language barrier. I taught The Raven during poetry, and they had issues with Poe, so I’m worried what they’re going to think of Shakespeare. I’m planning on using a variety of approaches including reading aloud, acting, and listening to different oral versions. But I know that I had/have issues with Shakespeare myself and I’m just not sure how to address that every day with the freshmen. 

Edit: My student population is fairly diverse. It’s a “regular” level class, but in it there are a couple of ELL students (both are from Germany originally), some future honors students, and some uninspired, uncaring students. 

Any suggestions?

As I’m getting things set up for class today and kids are coming into the classroom, one kid tells me “it smells in here!” Now kids complain about the way it smells every day, so I just brushed it off and told them to sit down because I was trying to answer questions from a student who was absent yesterday. Then a couple kids are saying that there’s smoke coming from the ceiling and I kind of brushed it off and joked with them about it because I personally didn’t see anything and thought they were just trying to get out of having real class, which they do all the time.

But then I did notice the smell and I did start noticing some smoke coming from the ceiling. I evacuated the classroom into the hall because the smell was really noxious and smelled like really gross burning plastic or something along those lines. I ran to the office to get Scott (since I’m all alone with the freshmen now) and we end up moving to the library for the class period.

Apparently something with the heater had caught on fire or malfunctioned or something along those lines, so it caused a horrendous smell and some smoke.

They definitely do not teach you how to deal with potentially dangerous fumes in college.

Also, I want to smack my freshmen. They just don’t listen. At all. Ever. I’m over it. Tomorrow, hardcore!Allison comes out.

I was in charge of the two sophomore periods because Ben had to go home during first hour for a family crisis. The first hour didn’t listen to me when I asked/told them to be quiet.

Then third hour I was informed by Scott that my plans for a lecture by the librarian fell through so instead of being in the library I had to come up with plan B. Luckily, I had all of my stuff ready for tomorrow, so I just switched days.

Unfortunately, I had tech issues, and tried to deal with them as best as I could. But the lecture on MLA formatting did not go well at all during fourth hour. Part of it, again, is them refusing to listen to me. I even got frustrated and told them that I was sick of having to stop and wait for them or to try to talk over them and that they need to listen better. But part of me literally just wants to give detentions to every student in that room. Ugh.

Fifth hour did go better, but I couldn’t do everything I wanted because I didn’t have enough time to procure a document camera, so I couldn’t show and go over the student example papers for MLA formatting, but I did pass them around as the students were working on their anthologies. So hopefully they gleaned something.

But I confused myself as I was explaining MLA, so I can only imagine how the kids probably felt. I want to give them a handout or something that easily explains quotes and citations but I’m not sure how to structure it. Any ideas?

The last two days, I was in Springfield at the Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE) Conference. It was required by ISU for us, but I’m really glad that I ended up going.

I went to a lot of really great workshops, including one about making Shakespeare (focusing on Romeo and Juliet) fun, which is perfect because I start R&J in two weeks. On Friday, there was also an open discussion forum for student teachers/new teachers where we could go and ask questions to/seek advice from veteran teachers. It was a really educational experience just listening to veteran teachers talk about what’s worked in their classrooms and how to even just get through day-to-day.

I was originally only planning on going Friday, but in the program, I found out that my HS junior English teacher was presenting a workshop today and I absolutely had to go because this teacher is my absolute favorite teacher I ever had and is the reason why I am an English teacher. It was so amazing to see her and hear her talk - and for a moment I felt like I was back in high school (especially since she calls me Ally, which no one, except people from HS calls me). 

But the best part of seeing her? That she was so excited for me to be a teacher. And that she told me to keep in touch and email her in the spring and she will keep her ear to the ground about job openings in the district and in the schools around us and let me know. Plus, she’s the English department chair (and my AP US teacher is the principal) so I have connections all over that building. SCORE.

I need to make it a point when I’m a full-time teacher to go to the IATE and NCTE conferences whenever I can. They’re invaluable; not just for new information, but just being in a building with a bunch of other people who are just as, if not more, energized and excited about teaching is amazing. You leave absolutely feeling like you can change the world, one student at a time. And that’s more important than anything, I think.

Only instead of leaving straight from school and hopping on the highway like I had planned, I have to come back home only to leave again right after.

WHY?

Because my stupid car decided to show me tonight that ALL THE BRAKES must suck.

I had originally just taken my car in to get an oil change. I thought it would be the responsible thing since I’ve needed to get one done for a while now and I have to drive 5 hours to Springfield for this dumb conference. Only when they went to do whatever it is they do, they also found that one side of the rear brakes are hanging low and are basically completely worn down to nothing and have been overheating (which would explain the weird smells I was smelling that I thought was other cars’ exhausts). So that has to be replaced. Which makes it unsafe for me to drive to Springfield on them. Plus the brake fluid needs to be replaced. Plus now the cap or cyllinder or whatever the fuck else they found needs to be replaced.

Thank god for my parents because there’s no way in hell I could afford a $600 repair on working for free.

I just want to go to sleep. And possibly have a good cry. But no.

I have to write two days’ worth of sonnet lessons. Including one for a REAL sub and not my CT like I had originally planned. Which means that I won’t be able to have them do really educational activities like I had planned. So not only do I loose one day for forgetting about President’s Day, but now I also loose Friday because my CT won’t be my sub.

UGH

But I talked to the plagiarizer. 

He admitted almost right off the bat that he had copied it word for word from online when I showed him the paper and asked if he knew why it was a zero.

I won’t be giving him an opportunity to make it up. It’s just a zero. But I didn’t write him up or give him a detention. Not today, anyway. I told him that he’s lucky it’s just a little 15 point assignment and not a big paper or anything, otherwise I would have given him a detention.

He told me that it was because he was too busy, but I gave them at least 20 minutes in class to work on them and he did nothing. So I don’t feel bad for having no remorse about giving him a 0. He cheated. I caught him. End of story.

And all my classes will be getting a “plagiarizing is bad” speech next Tuesday when we cover MLA citations. How fun.

Last week, I assigned my freshmen a “Haiku Calendar” where they had to write a single haiku for each month of the year. It’s really not a lot to write, if you remember a haiku is only 3 lines long. 

Well I’ve been working on grading them since I got them yesterday. Today, I read one and was sort of immediately suspect about it since some of the haikus contained words that I honestly do not know the definition of. If I - a voracious reader with a rather large vocabulary - don’t know these words, then chances are a freshman doesn’t.

So I came home tonight and Googled the first haiku, word for word. And what did I find in the amount of time it took to load the search page? EVERY. SINGLE. HAIKU. ON. G’S. PAGE.

G not only just plagiarized one haiku, G plagiarized every single haiku G turned in. I am not prepared to deal with plagiarism, at least not yet. Tomorrow, I will be having a talk with my CT about what he recommends I do, but I’m leaning toward a 0 for sure on the assignment, probable detention and possible letting the principal/dean know. But I want to talk with Scott first, although he’ll probably let me do whatever I think is best.

Welcome to the real world of teaching, I suppose.

Really, I just need to stop changing my previously planned lessons the night before I teach them. Ridiculous.

But, for Valentine’s Day, my freshmen will be studying odes and then writing one. And I bought heart-shaped lollipops for them. I’m cheesy, what can I say?

1. I think I’m getting sick. I’ve had constant headaches and my throat started hurting today. This is not okay.

2. I took my APT (certification) test today. I’m not sure how I did on it because there were some things that were completely common sense and some that I knew from classes, and some that I absolutely had no idea about. There was also a lot of questions about ELL which I have little-to-no knowledge about at all. So I made my best guess and hopefully I’ll do well enough to pass!

3. While at the APT, I ran into my 6th grade social studies teacher. He didn’t recognize me at first, since obviously I don’t look like I did in 6th grade. But he said that he remembered me once I told him my name. It was great running into him. He’s retired now and it’s sort of a bittersweet thing. He has always been one of my all-time favorite teachers (and he’s the only teacher I remember from 6th grade haha). I’m just sad that more students aren’t going to get to learn from him. 

Also, he won a Golden Apple one year. He’s just that amazing.

4. I learned that I’m taking over my sophomores a lot earlier than I thought I was. I have to decide what I’ll teach first: expository or persuasive speech. But I’ll teach both. It’ll be good for me, since I haven’t had any experience teaching speech. But I’ll have to teach myself most of this stuff as I only took the most basic speech class in college. Uh oh.

But I know that once I do this, I’ll have it forever and can adapt it. The first is always the hardest. But ugh, they’re annoying. But I think my kids will want to know exactly what they’ll be graded on and how much each aspect it worth. They’re just those types of kids.

Anyway.

Met my supervisor today. He seems like a really nice guy and he was really friendly, which is a plus. We talked for about an hour today, alone and with my CTs. He’s coming back toward the end of the month for my first official observation. I’ll be just starting Romeo and Juliet so I’ll have to plan something fun and exciting for that day. Especially since he’s observing both freshmen classes. So we’ll see how it goes.  My U.S. will be observing me four times throughout the next two months. Two will be my midterm and final observations, which are kind of scary. 

Also, does anyone else find it odd to be observed all the time and being talked about in front of you and not in front of you? Because I certainly do.

(Also, can you believe there’s really only less than 3 months left?)

I think it’s because I have a hectic morning and then don’t eat until 7th hour. I make sure to eat breakfast, but by 7th, I’m starving regardless of my breakfast. It’s awful.

Driving home from school, I was literally doing all I could to not close my eyes because my eyeballs hurt so badly. I’m sitting in my dark bedroom right now with my screen as dark as it can get. I’m just going to lay in the dark for a while - and try not to sleep. 

But I’m not going to get anything done while my headache is so terrible, anyway.

Thank god tomorrow’s Friday.

Also, I’ll post about meeting my supervisor after my headache goes away. Or tomorrow. Whatever comes first.

I’m not actually getting observed tomorrow. He’s just coming to meet with me and my CTs because the day we were supposed to meet there was a big snowstorm so he wasn’t going to drive, which I get. 

Scott is going to do a formal observation of me tomorrow. He’s been in and out of the classroom lately, which is okay with me. I kind of just wish I could be on my own, though. I feel so much more uncomfortable when he’s in the room. He didn’t come to 4th hour and it was good, but then he came to 5th hour and I was immediately on edge. I just hate being watched. I’ve already gotten used to being alone, so when he’s there now, I don’t like it. I just want my own classroom.

Tomorrow, I’m giving 4th hour a second come-to-Jesus talk. This time it’s about behavior and how I’m sick of the constant rudeness and talking over each other and complaining about doing work. Scott showed me how to write detentions so if this CTJ talk doesn’t work, and the new seating chart doesn’t work, then I’m writing those detentions that Scott said I had to write sometime during my student teaching. (literally, he said he’d fail me if I didn’t write one. Apparently I’m too nice.)

Also, I found out that three English teachers are preggo… but they’re due in June/July so I don’t know how much, if any, maternity leave they would get/need. It’s rather unfortunate for me, because I was hoping to apply for a long-term sub position for one of them and have an edge since they would know me.  *sigh* Can’t win them all, I suppose.

Because otherwise, I will be crying a lot this semester.

Today, during my two classes I always teach, Scott left me completely on my own. I didn’t even realize he was going to. He usually shows up right after the bell rings (can I write my CT a tardy slip?) and today he just never showed up. It didn’t really make a huge difference, since it’s not like he does anything while I’m teaching anyway. But still. It was really my classroom today. I hope he lets me be alone during the rest of the poetry unit. I could definitely use some more guidance during Romeo and Juliet but I feel like I have a grip on poetry.

But during 9th hour, Ben wanted to talk to me and kind of get a feel for how I’m doing and everything and basically told me that I need to ask more questions. Yes, I do have some questions, but I don’t know, I feel in the way when I do. And he told me not to worry about it and that I’m there to learn and he (and Scott) have lots of knowledge they’re willing to share, but oye. I’ve never been one to ask a bunch of questions. I’m naturally timid and shy and an observer. I guess I have to work on that. 

But during this whole talk, I was getting emotional. I shouldn’t because it wasn’t even a real criticism of me, and I’m sure I’ll get worse criticisms the further into this I get, but I was. I don’t know if Ben noticed or not, but ugh. My throat was getting all tight and I was pretty sure I was going to cry. It’s probably a being tired and not feeling well thing. 

Also, I got an official planning book. So now I’m really a teacher. I have an ID, a parking sticker, and a planning book. Too bad I don’t have what I really need - internet access and online gradebook access.

My CT was out at a football clinic so there was a sub in. My fourth hour class was off the walls. They were talking over each other every five seconds even when I told them to stop. They talked during the quiz. They talked while I went over the answers of the quiz. They talked when I was talking. They talked when others were asking questions or answering my questions. It was ridiculous. 

It eventually stopped when I threatened to give out detentions and then we were able to get more done. The sub said I did a pretty good job getting them to listen, but it doesn’t feel like it. I felt like I lost them completely. What a wreck.

Then fifth hour wouldn’t say a single thing. It was like talking to a brick wall. At one point, I called them zombies because they were literally just staring at me. I couldn’t get a single person to even offer up some sort of answer to my questions, so instead of me facilitating a discussion about The Raven, it was just me telling them exactly what was going on. I’m hoping that once we get past what’s actually happening then they’ll be able to talk about what things mean (they’re having issues with the language, which scares me because Poe is so much easier than Shakespeare and we’re going to read Romeo and Juliet next).

And then during eighth hour, which I don’t teach yet, they were extremely rude to the sub. She was trying to explain what they would be doing and kids were talking over her until I stood up and told them to stop - and also to tell one kid to go back to his seat because he apparently thought it was okay to move seats because the real teacher wasn’t there. Hah. I don’t think so.

I don’t even want to know what my kids are going to be like when my CT is no longer in the room. Oye.

Seriously, I asked her to write a recommendation letter for me last night and she’s already sent it to me. 

Also, recommendation letters are weird. I don’t take compliments well. But it’s super sweet.

Not to toot my own horn but this is my favorite part of the letter:

Any school districts that have the privilege of interviewing Allison will be astonished by her compassion, dedication and unique personality. Allison has a strong passion to teach, but more importantly, to impact the lives of her students. I know Allison will succeed in any path she takes in life because of her dedication to everything she has her heart set on.

Seriously, I don’t know why I ever doubted Jenn.

Is almost at an end. So glad tomorrow is Friday. I’m exhausted. And I only teach two classes a day. How am I going to survive teaching a full load???

Today, both of my CTs observed me, which was an interesting experience. They were acting worse than my freshmen sometimes, which was kind of amusing. I even threatened to send them to the dean’s which just made them laugh harder. They’re good friends, which is nice when the three of us are talking, but kind of annoying when I’m trying to teach my freshmen about Edgar Allan Poe.  But they apologized after and said that if they both observe me at the same time that they won’t sit next to each other anymore. haha

My observation went well, though. Ben had some nice comments to say, but the best was that when he first met me (and even at the beginning of last week when I re-introduced myself to the classes) and saw me interacting with the students, he was genuinely nervous that I wouldn’t cut it (because I was so nervous). But now he has total confidence that I can do it.

Best. Moment. Ever. 

Also question: 

For my reference list (with reference letters): should they be different people than my cooperating teacher and university supervisor? I know I should have someone (I have a few people I can get letters from) besides them, but I don’t know if I should have their letters in there. I haven’t even met my supervisor yet and I don’t feel like I should ask my CTs for a letter yet since I’ve just started. But I want to apply for this job that just opened. 

So: Who should be my recommendation letters — or, are letters from my CTs/supervisors totally necessary since they’ll be called regardless?