Teaching so far
Everybody keeps asking...How's teaching so far? Do you like it? What do you do?
Well, it's not that easy to explain. To start.. teaching is not easy... as a matter of fact, it's a very difficult. There are so many things that teachers have to account for and so many roles that we have to play. First and foremost there is teaching, I am responsible for teaching over a 100 students Introductory Spanish. And if you think that's easy, do you remember what it's like to be a teenager? Not only do I have to teach them, but I have to look out for their well being. Teachers do more then teach.. they nurture and inspire. It's very rewarding to watch students learn and to know they are enjoying it. I want my students to appreciate SPanish. But the thing is, we take a lot of crap from people too. Administrators who only care about test scores, and budget issues. Boards of Education that have no clue what they are doing.
So I have already begun teaching the 7th graders this week and most of them seem to be enjoying the lesson. I try to make it as fun as possible but t hat's not easy. This week I'm going to try some new activities with them and I hope they enjoy it. The 9th graders are a different story especially third period. They are alot of underachivers in that class and although I hate to say it, some of them really don't want to be there. I guess I felt that way too about some of my classes.
Also I created a test for the 7th graders and I wanted to use it as the chapter exam. However my Coopertive teacher told me that it would be too difficult. I thought the students would be ready for it. Well she proved me right. She let me give it to them as practice test and we made it into a competition. She was right.. it was way to hard and half the class failed with the majority of the class getting C's. I must say though I was really proud of one student. he was th eonly one to get 100% in both 7th grade classes. We gave him extra candy as a prize. So I had to create another test that was a little bit easier. I started to grade them and I was getting many more A's and B's. now that's the kind of tests I like to grade. I don't take pride in seeing my students fail. I really want them to learn, and I'm not going to try and trick them. I even gave them an extra credit question to use to make up for points. So.. i even got a few better then perfect papers.
I'm learning a lot.. trying to use differnt techniques and trying to see what will and won't work. Next week or I should say tommorrow I'm planning on using an approach called T.P.R or Total Physical Response. It used physical movements along with verbal recitation to help to remember vocabulary. I'm going to use it with the 9th graders. I hope it works. I guess we'll see.
So all in all I'm learning, but I still hav a long way to go.
As far as non-teaching matters, I'm trying to save some money on my car insurance so I;'m going to switch to either Geico or Liberty Mutual. They offered me the cheapest quotes. State farm is expensive, as is a couple o thers. However, in order to get the insurance in my name, the car has to be in my name. So I have to get my parents to sign my car over to me. Only question is.. you can't register a car with out insurance and how am I supposed to buy insurance if the car isn't in my name?
This shit is confusing.
Ok well I'm signing off, I have to go to work.
Well, it's not that easy to explain. To start.. teaching is not easy... as a matter of fact, it's a very difficult. There are so many things that teachers have to account for and so many roles that we have to play. First and foremost there is teaching, I am responsible for teaching over a 100 students Introductory Spanish. And if you think that's easy, do you remember what it's like to be a teenager? Not only do I have to teach them, but I have to look out for their well being. Teachers do more then teach.. they nurture and inspire. It's very rewarding to watch students learn and to know they are enjoying it. I want my students to appreciate SPanish. But the thing is, we take a lot of crap from people too. Administrators who only care about test scores, and budget issues. Boards of Education that have no clue what they are doing.
So I have already begun teaching the 7th graders this week and most of them seem to be enjoying the lesson. I try to make it as fun as possible but t hat's not easy. This week I'm going to try some new activities with them and I hope they enjoy it. The 9th graders are a different story especially third period. They are alot of underachivers in that class and although I hate to say it, some of them really don't want to be there. I guess I felt that way too about some of my classes.
Also I created a test for the 7th graders and I wanted to use it as the chapter exam. However my Coopertive teacher told me that it would be too difficult. I thought the students would be ready for it. Well she proved me right. She let me give it to them as practice test and we made it into a competition. She was right.. it was way to hard and half the class failed with the majority of the class getting C's. I must say though I was really proud of one student. he was th eonly one to get 100% in both 7th grade classes. We gave him extra candy as a prize. So I had to create another test that was a little bit easier. I started to grade them and I was getting many more A's and B's. now that's the kind of tests I like to grade. I don't take pride in seeing my students fail. I really want them to learn, and I'm not going to try and trick them. I even gave them an extra credit question to use to make up for points. So.. i even got a few better then perfect papers.
I'm learning a lot.. trying to use differnt techniques and trying to see what will and won't work. Next week or I should say tommorrow I'm planning on using an approach called T.P.R or Total Physical Response. It used physical movements along with verbal recitation to help to remember vocabulary. I'm going to use it with the 9th graders. I hope it works. I guess we'll see.
So all in all I'm learning, but I still hav a long way to go.
As far as non-teaching matters, I'm trying to save some money on my car insurance so I;'m going to switch to either Geico or Liberty Mutual. They offered me the cheapest quotes. State farm is expensive, as is a couple o thers. However, in order to get the insurance in my name, the car has to be in my name. So I have to get my parents to sign my car over to me. Only question is.. you can't register a car with out insurance and how am I supposed to buy insurance if the car isn't in my name?
This shit is confusing.
Ok well I'm signing off, I have to go to work.