Spring Break!

I can officially see the end of all of this... whether I'd call it a light or not, I dunno. I took total control of the class Thursday. I think that was ahead of the schedule, but I doubt anybody will care. I love the group of kids I am dealing with, I really do. They test my patience at times, but way less than I anticipated them doing.
My lesson on order of operations was going great until 3rd period came in and caught me doing something wrong with exponents. Now I remember why I hate math... I think they ended up more confused than they were before they came in. The rest of the periods went well. I'm learning much faster in a middle school environment than I did in an elementary school environment. Teaching the same lesson 6 times a day means that I get immediate feedback and make immediate changes- I like that. It does mean that 1st period gets shortchanged a lot, though.
Now it's a sunny day and I am eating sushi on my patio listening to records and writing this on my laptop- this might turn out to be the biggest perk ever. Time off is really all I want from a job- I want my time to yield the most money per hour worked possible. It doesn't concern me how much money is on my W2, the ratio is what really concerns me. I work at UPS with plenty of people who make 100K+, and I could have that. But the trade off is working 80 weeks every week- year round.
As it stands, I work that many hours. I had to start taking anti-depressants and my personal and work lives are in shambles. All to go teach a subject I have little to no interest in ever teaching professionally. Thanks for the memories, MTSU.

"Hi, I'm Your New Student Teacher"

Yesterday was the day I introduced myself to the class and set down my expectations. I also tried to pry some information out of the students about what they were interested in. I told them I'm not a math teacher, and they should help me come up with stuff to study after TCAP. Luckily, cooperating teacher says that they're all mine to do with as I please. It was a "you can take my interests- from my cold dead hands" kind of situation. Mostly them seem to enjoy sports and drinking red vault from a 2 foot long twizzler with the ends bitten off. Oh, and shock and indignation, they love that too.
discipline is going to take some getting used to...

Day 1 of New Placement

The new school is a much newer, better equipped building than I was prepared for.
The environment is much less regulated in some ways, but a lot more regulated in others.
The morning began with a daily dress-code check- all students stand and demonstrate that their shirt is tucked in and they are wearing a belt, etc. Many students simply tie a shoelace around their waist for whatever reason. Students are not allowed to carry anything but those dumb single pouch vinyl bags that are on strings. Athletic wear manufacturers design bags especially to sell to this market.
But then the kids are allowed to live on a diet of Vault and Cheetos, and the hallway is a deafening game of slap and tickle. It was St. Patrick's Day...ok it was to them, but nobody told them that the pope moved it to last Saturday. Try telling a middler schooler that when they are trying to pinch you. I only had one do it, I think he was the only one who was too dumb to understand my pinch-me-and-i-will-break-your-fingers posture.
Math seems like it will be easy to teach, it's so cut and dry. I've really never taught anything like that, so I hope that the new coop teacher has more material on file than it looks like she does. She says I can do anything I want with them after the TCAP... and thats just what I was hoping to hear.

Last Day of First Placement

This Wednesday was my last day. The kids gave me a lot of notes, my cooperating teacher gave me a briefcase, I got a card, etc. I didn't expect to get so attached to these kids so quickly. Now I am sitting in day two of tedious, but occasionally interesting presentations.
I finished the majority of my MTSU formalities. That feels good. The rest of them will be completed during spring break.

What I will do differently in my next placement:
start out tough on discipline.
get to know my students more quickly.
keep copies of my planning.
meet the administration and nearby teachers quickly.
grade students harder
demand more feedback from my cooperating teacher.

I am mortified by the prospect of teaching mathematics. My department has stalled me past having time to negotiate another placement. One of my classmates describes my next school as "a penitentiary."

In Mexico...

I have a number of Chicano students, and I love them dearly. For years as a kid, every afternoon playing video games with the mexican-americans up the street. I always joked with their mother that if she fed me any more, my own mother was going to get jealous.
As long as I can remember, I have gravitated toward immigrants of any stripe. I guess we share the alienated feeling. I'm not often accused of being easy to approach- quite the opposite in fact. But for whatever reason, immigrants have always gravitated to me.
We have this one "chapter book" in the class library Vampire Plague of Mexico, 1850- the book never gets checked out but it always gets looked at. And I don't want it to get checked out because it starts fantastic conversations like this one:

F: Mr.C Mr.C Mr.C Mr.C!
Me: WHAT!
F: My uncle told me that there are vampires in Mexico.
Me: That's what I've heard!
F: He says that they stick you with their claws this deep(holds up fingers) in the neck.
Me: Are you sure your uncle was not talking about a Chupacabra?
F: No, they scratch this deep (holds up fingers a little farther apart)

Or This one:

A: Did you know that in Mexico, they have witches and ghosts and Vampires?
Me: Yes I've heard they are having problems with them.
A: My Aunt has a witch that walks on her roof at night.
Me: That's creepy.
A: We tried throwing rocks at her but she keeps coming back.

Or My Favorite:

"My Aunt called my mom this morning. My cousin was riding his bike and he got attacked by a werewolf."