How can I put this bluntly?
There are simply things you CANNOT learn in a classroom about teaching in a real public school class.
Here is a list of things you can't learn from a textbook: (These are all meant in good humor)
10) Schedule changes are not a possibility, they are the reality. PLAN ON IT.
9) Middle School students can and WILL fixate on random things at any given moment; don't be surprised if a group of 7th grade girls spontaneously start making flatulent noises with their armpits in the middle of a lesson. -- It's not you. It's them. I promise.
8) You will learn more about the students in the teachers' lounge than you will ever learn in the classroom.
7) "Square One" that you're going to have to go back to: it starts WAAAAYYYYY farther back than what you thought. . . waayyy farther. . . nope, farther than that. . . . keep going. . . yeah, you're getting it.
6) You need to keep some sort of drink handy if you plan to make it through a day of teaching. (What kind of drink you want may depend on what kind of students you have.)
5) The teacher you see in the classroom is NOTHING like the teacher you see in an in-service meeting.
4) A teacher's bladder fills in direct proportion to the time spent teaching, NOT to how much he or she has actually had to drink.
3) That "sweet child" you have in first period mutates into a completely different species by seventh period.
2) Writing directions on the board is for the people evaluating you; students apparently cannot see dry-erase ink unless you read it to them at least three times.
1) A "mongoose" is a "weird kind of bird that swoops down and kills snakes." Several of these "birds" have apparently been seen by the more interesting students in schools today.
Heaven help us all. :P LOL
BG
7th grade huh??? Lucky you! LOL>
ReplyDeleteHow have you been? Its been a while...what like a year probably? Anyway, I hope you are doing well. Say hello if you get a chance.
BTW how is everyone else? Rebecca, Kevin, etc...
giggle,
ReplyDelete10 - it takes a good admin at least a month to 2 months to get the scheduling correct and a bad admin can mean a nasty year.
9 - It is not just middle school, elementary school is even worse LOL although in elementary it is the boys not the girls who get so easily distracted.
8 - Another teacher's opinion often helps you to understand underlying causes, BUT I NEVER take another teacher's opinion of a student and always form my own.
7 - yes, and in a high poverty area, the students start out with a HUGE deficient of the most basic vocabulary.
6 - I get to sit down for an estimate of 15 to 20 minutes (the only moment I have to eat lunch) and I never have anything to eat or drink during class.
5 - True, but only because even the best teacher in the world has to play the political game. There is an image that has to be upheld if a teacher wants a job. Especially in the state of Florida which still has a law on the books that a teacher can be dismissed for being unprofessional even in their personal life (and the meaning of unprofessional is up to the person interpreting the law). Unfair, but the way it is.
4 - I don't get that one but then I rarely go to the bathroom at work.
3 - YES!! lololol
2 - The speech therapist once told me that having the students parrot back what you have said at least 3 times will help them retain the information given.
1 - Hahahahahahaha - The best stories come out of being a teacher. :)
Carry on!! :)