Another chance at teaching

Week 2: our first formative assessment. In other words, a mid-term. Results: not too pleasing, considering the work put into this, on their part as well as ours. None of them improved significantly. One even pretty much gave up. I know that she can do more than this, but she didn’t answer half the problems. I’m disappointed, dejected, disheartened. How can I make this more interesting? What am I not doing that might help? What can I do to get them to try?

Ahh, a strange relief. The girl who didn’t try on the quiz dropped the class today. She came in with a note saying that she’d already gotten credit for this class but that she had been put in this one anyway. That means she was not just slacking off in my class for no reason. Alas, she could have gained from this, I think.

Tuesday, TFA day: totally free afternoon. It was a joke, really. The afternoon was fun. True, they canceled our meetings and had some games and fun activities back in the dorm commons. This was a misleading title, though. They let us go only half an hour early, whereas other schools got literally everything after noon free. We also had lesson plans and guided notes and homework to make for the next day. I admit, though I did get some work done, I did go out to eat with my sweet roommate and some of her friends, and I did get a 5-min. massage downstairs.

On the up side, my collaborative partner (my co-teacher) and I decided to split the days instead of the class periods. This means that I get to teach for an hour and 45 min. every other day. It works pretty well, as long as my lessons can fit well into that time. Either they run long, or we end up sitting there, staring at each other all day--that's very boring. This lesson style does mean that we only have to write half the lesson plans.

A long week of teaching

6/22: I now understand the phrase "It's five 0'clock somewhere." What did we do as a school full of new teachers when class let out on Friday? We went to happy hour at the Armadillo grill-something-or-other. I really don't remember the name, but if you drive past it, you won't miss it. There is literally a 20ft+, metal-plated armadillo with horns and red light bulb eyes out in front of this place. It was actually really nice to hang out with these people without the pressure of student scrutiny or staff observations or any sort of schedule. I'm still getting to know some of these people, even the ones I see for most of the day. I got to spend time just talking (and taking pictures, of course). My camera already has a reputation. )