Between the job search workshop on Thursday, your ongoing Teacher Work Sample, your day-to-day planning and practice in schools, and your anticipation of your graduation from college, you folks have a lot on your plates and on your minds. You must be focused on the particulars all the time (lesson objectives, reading texts, responding to Dr. Cook's emails, paying attention to every student in your charge) and yet you also necessarily must be thinking about the bigger picture here (what comes next?, how will I put closure on my college career?, what in the world will I do without Dr. Cook in my life? ;0)
The point I'm getting at is that between the forest and the many, many trees, you must have a lot on your mind.
So, this week I want to give you a chance, prior to seminar, to air those thoughts with us here. Anything is fair game as long as it is relative to your life as a teacher and/or a student. What is on your mind as we sail into the final stretch of the semester?
12 comments:
Hi guys! Funny that this is the prompt this week....I have really been starting to think about what comes next...so what does come next? For the first time since the age of 5 I will no longer have to get up for school in the morning. (unless of course I get sub jobs) It is going to be so weird not to have a class to go to, a paper to write, a book to read that doesnt really interest me..I have to admit that I already miss not having classes everyday. I can only imagine what I am going to feel like when even seminar is done. YIKES.... grad school here I come. I think. I am not ready to give up being a student, but at the same time I LOVE being the teacher! I love seeing my kids and laughing with them and learning about them...and learning about myself...and teaching them things that they can use for the rest of their lives.
I am already getting nervous about leaving my classes. I have become pretty attatched to them and they have become that way with me too...almost everyday one of them says "I dont want you to leave" or "I dont want Mrs. C back" ....this is what makes me sad..I dont want to leave them either. I feel like we are on a journey together...a senior teaching seniors...they are getting ready to go to college and I am getting ready to leave...we find a lot of common ground in experiences that I have had and that they are going through. It feels natural to go to NPH everyday.
After the job search workshop I was a little more nervous than I thought...I think its hard to "toot my own horn" and that is what a resume and interviewing is all about. Its a challenge to tell someone why I am better for the job than maybe one of you, my classmates and my friends.
For once I am the first person to respond....YAY for having time off!!! I am sure I will probably post again at some point this week. Have a wonderful mid-week day off Ninjas!
P.S. I have no idea what I am going to do without Dr. Cook in my life.....good thing she isnt going anywhere. Lets here it for EMAIL!
A poem for you folks today. Amazing.
The Sacred
by Stephen Dunn
After the teacher asked if anyone had
a sacred place
and the students fidgeted and shrank
in their chairs, the most serious of them all
said it was his car,
being in it alone, his tape deck playing
things he'd chosen, and others knew the truth
had been spoken
and began speaking about their rooms,
their hiding places, but the car kept coming up,
the car in motion,
music filling it, and sometimes one other person
who understood the bright altar of the dashboard
and how far away
a car could take him from the need
to speak, or to answer, the key
in having a key
and putting it in, and going.
"The Sacred" by Stephen Dunn, from Between Angels. © W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.
We still have six weeks left of student teaching...and we still have a lot of work to do in the mean time. But - when we are done - it's crazy to me, we are going to be college graduates! What an amazing feeling... We are going to be able to go out in to the world, and yes, at the beginning we will probably be long-terming and subbing, but we will be proactive and determined, we will find jobs and then - well then we will get to do what we love for a living. That's what I think is amazing. I think I can speak for most of us when I say that we have all had our share of jobs that make us appreciate every ounce of being able to teach for the rest of our lives.
Grad school is something I have thought a lot about too... But I am not sure that it is something I will do right away. I am so eager to get into the schools in my teacher shoes and leave my student shoes in the closet for a little while. But who knows?
I don't know, sometimes it's just surreal that after everything we have been through...every paper, test, class, portfolio, lesson plan, reading, I mean just everything in the past four years - it has all lead here, these last six weeks. And after this, we can go out into the world and do what we love. Is this real!!!???? :)
I've been thinking a lot about location too... My home is the Ocean State, but I would love to live somewhere else for a while...Who knows? I'll be honest, for now I am just taking things one day at a time.
As for no Dr. Cook in our lives, I don't see that happening. I can at least speak for myself by saying I wouldn't be the person, student, teacher, I am today without everything she has taught me.
6 weeks ninjas - let's do this.
I’ve already decided I want to move after student teaching, and last week’s class definitely cemented that fact. Trying to decide where to move is the difficult part. I know the places I’d like to move on a personal level, but unfortunately many of those places don’t seem to be hiring teachers at the moment. I don’t want to blindly move and then hope to find a job; that just seems very foolish, especially with this economy. But how does the process of applying to jobs in other places work? It’s not feasible for me to fly out to interviews. Do they expect that or do just have phone interviews? I’m still confused about these questions.
I’ve also been thinking about the fact that I may not find a teaching job right away. Although the thought of that is a little scary I can still work with kids in other areas. Groundworks, the program I worked at over the summer, has chapters all over the country so I could always look into that or any other educational program involving teens. So I’m trying to be optimistic in that area.
The other topic that’s been on my mind this week is time management outside the classroom. I feel as though I don’t spend my time doing work for teaching and Practicum wisely. I get home from school between 4-4:30 each day (Central starts a little later than all of your schools ….I think…so we get out later) and almost all of my evenings are spent correcting, working on lessons, or something for Practicum until around 11:00. I guess this is to be expected, but I don’t feel as though I’ve been very productive when I go to bed around midnight. I’m missing out on friends, family, and exercise about 90% of the time. I understand that it’s like this now because everything is new and we have the extra task of completing our final portfolios. I’m just hoping to find a groove sometime soon where I can fit in things that are good for my body and my soul.
As for Dr. Cook, she’ll always be sitting at the back of my classroom in spirit. :)
Well, I guess I am lucky in this regard, because in 6 weeks I know what I will be doing...student teaching!
However, my concerns for what happens after are still real. As far as where I will be working, the old "Wherever will hire me" that MOST college grads are allowed to state is SOOO not true in our area. I know for a fact that I will not be taking an inner city school position right off the bat because I know I'm not ready. But, I am also not ready to move too far yet. I WISH I could move, but it's just not the mature decision to make right now in my own personal life for a million different family reasons (Kate- I admire you for your decision, and I do have a friend from my Practicum, Kayla Pandolfi, you may know her, who did move right after if you want, she'd probably be willing to talk with you about the interview steps and stuff!)
I think my biggest fear is GETTING a job in this economy! Everyone said there was going to be this HUGE teacher shortage and we'd all be SURE to get jobs! But, now as the time gets closer, there aren't so many openings. And now those same people are saying "Glad I didn't go into teaching!"
My other concern is the chance (whether I move or not) of teaching and living in the same town. Being a young teacher has so many problems linked to it in thr first place, and I have one friend who is Long term subbing in our home town and ALL the kids know her and some of them show up at her house and bang on the door for help. She also still holds a part-time job at a store in town, so she's teaching some of her co-workers...WEIRD! How do you deal with stuff like that?
What I DO know is that when I get my first job, I will smile before Christmas, and that Dr.Cook will never be far because her advice will linger in my head as I teach and, e-mail is a fabulous invention!
I am really excited to be done with college (for now), and to start working in schools for a living. Realizing that the portfolio is almost close to being complete, and there are about 5 weeks left of class, I am more and more ready to give college a break and start with the next chapter of my life. BUT, I do believe in taking things one day at a time, and in this day, I have something big on my teacher mind.
Yesterday, a new student was introduced to my class. This person who appeared kind and ready to go when I first met him turned out to be one of the biggest distractions in the class within 20 minutes of his arrival. It has made me think about how it may be difficult to integrate this student into a classroom climate that has already been established. This is an example of things you wouldn't know about being a teacher unless you were there. I was never the "new kid" in school but I have seen the "new kid", and thought about how it must be difficult to adjust to a new school. I have never until recently thought about how it must be for a teacher to adapt to the "new kid".
I am putting myself in this student's shoes, I am helping him to understand how our class works, and I am bringing him up to speed on what is being taught at the moment. Tomorrow is day 2 with this new student and I will see how well he is adapting so far. I can assure you I will have more to report tomorrow.
Kellen-
I am going through something similar, although instead of new kids I now have students who were never around last quarter now showing up to begin the 2nd quarter fresh. It is really difficult to have a student come in out of nowhere...trying to catch them up on what's already done and teach them what the classroom climate is like. In essence they are like new kids because the other students aren't used to having them in the class and it can create distractions. I'm wondering what the etiquette is...how much do you try to catch them up on as far as past units go? This becomes especially difficult if you're trying to build on skills started at the beginning of the year. I guess the lesson learned, for me anyways, is that there are always new surprises around the corner....new challenges. Good luck with your new student Kellen!
As we encroach of the final month as students, I can't help but be supermotivated about what there is to come. It's funny how all of the things on my plate right now feel more like prep for the future, more positive than negative. Everything we have to do right now only gets me excited to get out there myself!
I also feel more energy now. We are over the hump with the TCWS and we have only one (or a few) observations left. We have to create new resumes and fine tune selling ourselves to a group of people who barely know us. I can't wait to see what I/we accomplish.
I want to stay in touch with everyone from RIC, but I know reality and responsibilities we all either do or will have will create a life a little more crazy and forward moving.
I also know though, that when I use different strategies in the classroom or eat a comquat(sp?) I will think of the times spent sitting at our round table creating what could never be duplicated.
Coming up to seminar, the major thing plaguing me had been grades. How impersional my 99 (not 88 as I erroneously quoted you all in class) comment choices are for my students. How I want to tell the parent of a student with ADHD that he shines on good days, but that recently he is struggling to maintain respectful behavior in my classroom. How I want to tell the parents of an honors candidate that she ISN'T working to her potential, even though she's doing exceedingly well in class.
But I am not brave enough to pick up the phone, like Taylor Mali, to report to a parent about the fantastic thing their son or daughter did in my class today. A phonecall from the teacher is a harbinger of doom. I am not a person, I am an authority figure. No news is good news; contact from me is a terrifying prospect.
My student self is, as usual, pulling her hair out, pouring another cup of coffee, and loudly cursing the clock and calendar. They are conspiring against me. I, like Kate, need to discover the zen-balance of RL time-management.
I need more information before I can speak to my newly added student adjustment problem. The student and I are apparently not speaking the same language (figuratively, here, not literally), so I need to get to the bottom of that before I rant needlessly, but what I will say is that I am finding it difficult to get to the bottom of the issue when the student will not stay after class, after school, during advisory, or even, often, show up TO class. I cannot communicate if there is no person to communicate WITH.
Getting certified.
Finishing college stuff.
Human resource directors.
BCI checks.
Going to the Down and Outs show.
Sam Adams Octoberfest.
The beer festival at the convention center.
Filling out a job application.
Tokyo Gore Police.
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