Thursday, we went over course expectations and I started getting to know the students a little better. Again, I taught fourth and sixth hours, and observed second, third, and fifth. Mrs. S again told me that sixth hour was much better than fourth. Not that I didn't do well the first time, but after successfully (and a bit nervously) teaching fourth hour, I had my footing, and I wasn't as worried about what I was doing, which made it possible for me to focus more on what the students were doing. Something I definitely have to work on is being more observant in the classroom, which Mrs. S has assured me comes with time, so I know I'll eventually get better at it.
I was also give the assignment that I'll be teaching Unit 2 on Puritan Literature on Thursday, which COMPLETELY terrifies me. I guess I should mention that I'm teaching Junior English classes and that all of the literature I teach will be American, which is exciting to me, because, in general, I prefer British, so it will be a challenge. I'll be teaching The Crucible, so, any and all suggestions are welcome to all of my Theatre and English buddies out there :) My unit begins the week of September 10th so I have just about a month to prepare. I've only ever created one other complete unit and I had an entire semester to do it, so I feel like I may be pulling out my hair in a couple of weeks, but I'm just keeping a positive attitude, because The Crucible is an awesome way to start out my teaching career, I get to conjoin my two loves English and Theatre, and I get to take my students out of their comfort zones a little, which will be fun!
The most important thing about Thursday, though, is that during sixth hour, Mrs. S left me alone in the classroom to take roll and get the class started without her. She told me she trusted that I could do it and that I'd be fine. She was right! I had the attention of all of my students and they were incredibly quiet when I was giving instructions, scary quiet actually, but that's not the point. I had really good control of my classroom, Mrs. S was impressed and very proud of me :)
Friday, I got to wear jeans to school! I felt a little bit like an EFY counselor again because they gave me a lovely Mesa High polo to wear when I first arrived, which I donned for casual Friday. I taught third, fourth, sixth, and half of fifth hours, only sitting out second, and it was the first day of "real" instruction. We did introductions for the first little bit so that I can start learning their names faster. Fingers crossed on that one! Then, we read an article finding the claim, important organizations, and quotes within it. Third hour was pretty rough, I had a hard time explaining to the class what a claim is, and they had a really hard time understanding when I was struggling, eventually we all came to an understanding about it, but that was something I knew I seriously had to fix before fourth hour, so Mrs. S gave me some good solid advice, and fourth and sixth hours were both much better. She left me alone in sixth hour again, which was good, but a little more nerve wracking than the first time because I had a couple of students that were trying to give me a hard time, but I handled everything as best as I could, and felt ok about it all at the end of the day.
So, that was my first week of teaching! I didn't really mention anything about living in Mesa in my last post, so I'll do it here. I'm pretty much loving it! I was pretty skeptical at first because it is hotter than Ryan Lochte and Bradley Cooper combined here. Most days when I'm on my way to school it's between 95 and 100 degrees out and it's 7:45 in the morning. By the time I get out of school in the afternoon it's around 120. Basically, I stay inside. I've been asked a lot why it's so bad to me because I've lived in Florida and South Carolina, which both can get into the 100's at times, but the difference is that the East coast is like being in a closed oven with the humidity and out here it's like a frying pan, just hot and the sun just beats down on you. Well that and it's 20 degrees hotter most of the time, actually 30 right now.
Other than the weather, I really am enjoying it. I got to go to the Mesa Temple this week, and I actually saw my old Disney roommate, Holly, or I should say, Hermana Larson, at the Visitor's Center, where she is serving. She was so surprised to see me! I knew that she was here, but obviously she had no way of knowing I was! It was really neat!
Also, I have seen Holly, my sister, not my missionary friend, more here when we are living 10 minutes from each other than I'm pretty sure we saw each other in Rexburg when we lived right next door to each other. It's been so great! I don't have a roommate in my room with me, so she's able to stay over whenever she wants which is pretty awesome.
Life in AZ is going really well so far and I'm excited to be able to be here and experience a completely different part of the country that I've really never seen before. My ward is humongous, honestly the biggest ward I've ever seen let alone been in, which is good and bad. There are a lot of people to meet and become friends with, but since there are so many people, I'm hoping it won't be hard to actually meet a group of people to hang out with on a regular basis, but I'm staying positive about it! I'm going to join the ward choir tomorrow, so hopefully I'll make some friends there! More updates are to come about my adventures in teaching and life in generally but until then,
Carry On.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
My Jackrabbit Beginnings
First of all, I haven't blogged in a long time, so I'm going to being putting up several posts to explain my first week of student teaching so that there isn't just one huge post. Having said that...week one of my student teaching is done! I have already learned SO much. I have done a lot more teaching than I initially thought I'd do the first week, which is great, but it was totally exhausting! My mentor teacher (whom I will refer to as Mrs. S from now on) is so amazing. She is an awesome teacher, incredibly supportive of me, pushes me to work hard, gives me honest feedback (which is so important!) and she loves Disney. I mean, how is it not fate that she is my mentor?? It's positively providential!
Days one and two were full of very long meetings and don't really warrant their own posts. They were days full of important information, but with the exhaustion from our cross-country trek and the time change that came along with it, I was trying VERY hard not to fall asleep during those oh so informative meetings.
Day three was Wednesday, the first day of school with students. I was nervous...but excited. I guess if I was Troy Bolton I might have tried singing a song about it, but I refrained. If you don't understand that reference, please watch this, because it is HILARIOUS! You should know that on Tuesday as I was leaving Mrs. S told me to plan on teaching at least 6th hour the next day. I was in a total panic, I figured my first week would be observing and taking notes, not being thrown in front of a class right away!
So, I arrived the next morning at 7:45, luckily my first hour is planning, so I had a little bit of time to be in the classroom preparing myself mentally for this, my first day of school as a semi-real teacher. I observed second and third hour and then Mrs. S said, "Are you ready? I want you to take fourth if you think you are." Honestly, I was terrified, but I had just watched her for two class periods, so I threw myself in the ring. At least, that's what it kind of felt like, I was a boxer, one against 34 opponents, with no boxing gloves.
I started out cowering in the corner, metaphorically speaking of course, constantly looking back at my coach to make sure I was doing alright. She nodded in an incredibly supportive manner and I started to feel more comfortable. By the end of the hour, I felt pretty good, like I wasn't cowering in the corner so much as just inching toward my opponent. Maybe boxing isn't really the right metaphor to use in this situation because obviously my students aren't my opponents nor would I ever actually throw punches, but I'm already this far into the blog post and I don't feel like having to put more energy into thinking of another clever way to describe my day. It will just have to suffice for today.
I sat out fifth hour to take a breather and recoup for sixth hour, which went much better. Not that fourth hour was horrible, but I had a confidence in myself that I didn't really know was even possible! I was authoritative, but not in a way that made the students hate me, I knew things were going to be fine, I had it under control and it was the most amazing feeling in the world. I had on my boxing gloves and I was ready for that scantily clad woman to come out and ring the bell and start the match. I honestly don't think I could have chosen a worse metaphor, but again, I apologize.
So, the first day of school made me realize that all of those times that I questioned whether or not I really wanted to be a teacher, all of the times I feared I had chosen the wrong major yet again, all of my doubts were COMPLETELY unwarranted. I love teaching. Once I stood in front of those students and realized I was going to be able to change their lives, every one of the questions, doubts, and fears were so far away that I couldn't even see them anymore. I know this is where I'm supposed to be, and Heavenly Father put me here for a specific reason. The Mesa High motto is Carry On. I'm going to face a lot of challenges this semester, but all I have to remember is that I'm a Jackrabbit and that I just have to Carry On. I've been working 6 years to get here and I'm ready. So, from now on all of my blog posts will end with...
Carry On.
Days one and two were full of very long meetings and don't really warrant their own posts. They were days full of important information, but with the exhaustion from our cross-country trek and the time change that came along with it, I was trying VERY hard not to fall asleep during those oh so informative meetings.
Day three was Wednesday, the first day of school with students. I was nervous...but excited. I guess if I was Troy Bolton I might have tried singing a song about it, but I refrained. If you don't understand that reference, please watch this, because it is HILARIOUS! You should know that on Tuesday as I was leaving Mrs. S told me to plan on teaching at least 6th hour the next day. I was in a total panic, I figured my first week would be observing and taking notes, not being thrown in front of a class right away!
So, I arrived the next morning at 7:45, luckily my first hour is planning, so I had a little bit of time to be in the classroom preparing myself mentally for this, my first day of school as a semi-real teacher. I observed second and third hour and then Mrs. S said, "Are you ready? I want you to take fourth if you think you are." Honestly, I was terrified, but I had just watched her for two class periods, so I threw myself in the ring. At least, that's what it kind of felt like, I was a boxer, one against 34 opponents, with no boxing gloves.
I started out cowering in the corner, metaphorically speaking of course, constantly looking back at my coach to make sure I was doing alright. She nodded in an incredibly supportive manner and I started to feel more comfortable. By the end of the hour, I felt pretty good, like I wasn't cowering in the corner so much as just inching toward my opponent. Maybe boxing isn't really the right metaphor to use in this situation because obviously my students aren't my opponents nor would I ever actually throw punches, but I'm already this far into the blog post and I don't feel like having to put more energy into thinking of another clever way to describe my day. It will just have to suffice for today.
I sat out fifth hour to take a breather and recoup for sixth hour, which went much better. Not that fourth hour was horrible, but I had a confidence in myself that I didn't really know was even possible! I was authoritative, but not in a way that made the students hate me, I knew things were going to be fine, I had it under control and it was the most amazing feeling in the world. I had on my boxing gloves and I was ready for that scantily clad woman to come out and ring the bell and start the match. I honestly don't think I could have chosen a worse metaphor, but again, I apologize.
So, the first day of school made me realize that all of those times that I questioned whether or not I really wanted to be a teacher, all of the times I feared I had chosen the wrong major yet again, all of my doubts were COMPLETELY unwarranted. I love teaching. Once I stood in front of those students and realized I was going to be able to change their lives, every one of the questions, doubts, and fears were so far away that I couldn't even see them anymore. I know this is where I'm supposed to be, and Heavenly Father put me here for a specific reason. The Mesa High motto is Carry On. I'm going to face a lot of challenges this semester, but all I have to remember is that I'm a Jackrabbit and that I just have to Carry On. I've been working 6 years to get here and I'm ready. So, from now on all of my blog posts will end with...
Carry On.
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