/sadface!
*dusts off the 'ol livejournal*
What's important in life? Friends and family? Health? Being the guy who spoils Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for everyone else? Right now, mine is probably my career. Or, rather, lack thereof. This, coincidentally, pushes a lot of other things to the side. Like journaling, talking, and most communication with the outside world. Which leaves a few things for me to do with my free time. Like World of Warcraft, light reading, and generally being anti-social, which is not unlike how I was before I entered college. It's kind of a safety net, something I fall back to when things aren't completely awesome.
In case you're wondering, I am becoming a teacher. Not a lot of people know this. Probably because I'm not really sure what to think of it myself. I'd like to teach Life Sciences and Biology, or anything really. I liked almost all of my subjects in school except for Calculus. But you know, after all of these years, my most influential teachers were always the ones who taught Chinese. I guess those guys knew what they were doing when it came to classroom management, motivating, challenging, and promoting one of the most memorable, safe, learning environments I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. They had the talent and the drive, they were wise, warm, and intelligent, and most importantly, they had excellent relationships with the students.
I'm taking classes right now, classes that instill future teachers with the desire, need, and incredible want to deal with students who are under-privileged, poor, and ultimately unmotivated. Without the help we're getting, we'll become a statistic, one of the over 30% of teachers who will stop teaching within four years of entering their first classroom. They're trying to show us how times have changed and that we'll change with it and that we'll be able to cope with the new situations that arise and challenges our authority, knowledge, and respect.
It's crazy how every instructor is constantly reassuring us that everything will be fine... because things will turn hellish at two major points in our career. The first day, and somewhere in late fall. This is besides having to deal with everyday things like parents, discipline, and evaluations of both yourself by your peers and the students.
Coming this fall, if (and more likely WHEN) I receive a position this fall, I will become an official intern with that school district that I join. I will be the teacher of record (the correct title of a classroom's teacher) and will be entitled to full pay and benefits. Of course, I won't really get into any teachers' unions, but that's another subject. Most importantly, I'll have a classroom and students of my own. I'll show them why I like what I'm doing and why they should too. One of the things I'm concerned with is how students are learning more and more towards an obsession with money. They wear shirts that have dollar signs on them, they have green shoes that sport pictures of bills, and most importantly, they talk about it a lot. Many of these teens just don't have any of it. Unless you deal drugs, in which case, you have plenty of it. While I substituted, I talked to a couple of drug dealers from different schools, and they always have a lot of money, and what's worse, they love to show it off.
The sad thing is that most of those students who wear lots of clothing emphasizing greed are probably the least likely to obtain any wealth, and they're looking in all of the wrong places for it. I just hope that they spend enough time on schoolwork so that they won't spend the rest of their lives as unhappy dropouts, and I've already decided that I'm not going to do many favors and try to give kids passing grades who don't deserve it.
Teaching is a complicated profession, one that takes heart, dedication, and patience. It also takes a lot of help. The state of California will spend about $10,000 per teacher on support programs to assist those in their first couple of years. Since then, teacher drop out rate has been hovering around 10%. I think I'll have it good, seeing how some of my friends are doing in their respective fields. Teaching, in my opinion, is a lot of fun and is a good challenge. I never really had the opportunity to tell people about my experiences in substitute teaching. Like the time I was hugged by a student for just being nice to him. Like the moments where kids thank me for being fair and respectful. For caring, something they don't always get outside of school. I'm definitely not changing lives, but I hope to get to that point sometime in my career.
I just wanted to share a not-so-regular substitute day:
I was a substitute for a lady who was on campus, she just wanted a helping hand with one of the last days of school. This help I was providing consisted of purchasing Chinese food at her expense for her anger-management class for doing such a good job of not getting into any fights or yelling at teachers, which, coincidentally, angered a lot of the other teachers on campus and caused resentment among many other students who were not acting up or giving attitude. Rewarding problem students this way who are behaving as expected are probably just being spoiled. Anyway, I just wanted to be the guy who wasn't caught in the middle of this, so *I* go to be the lucky one who had to bring a large amount of Chinese food into campus without causing a ruckus. And this was practically the whole point of my being there. The lady took out one of her sick-leave days for me to do this one task, which was kind of odd. I got lucky and no one really said anything to me as I tried to sneak in this beer case - that's what the restaurant packed the food in - filled with Chinese. The rest of my day was spent eating some of that food and cleaning up. I guess subs are good for something.
What's important in life? Friends and family? Health? Being the guy who spoils Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for everyone else? Right now, mine is probably my career. Or, rather, lack thereof. This, coincidentally, pushes a lot of other things to the side. Like journaling, talking, and most communication with the outside world. Which leaves a few things for me to do with my free time. Like World of Warcraft, light reading, and generally being anti-social, which is not unlike how I was before I entered college. It's kind of a safety net, something I fall back to when things aren't completely awesome.
In case you're wondering, I am becoming a teacher. Not a lot of people know this. Probably because I'm not really sure what to think of it myself. I'd like to teach Life Sciences and Biology, or anything really. I liked almost all of my subjects in school except for Calculus. But you know, after all of these years, my most influential teachers were always the ones who taught Chinese. I guess those guys knew what they were doing when it came to classroom management, motivating, challenging, and promoting one of the most memorable, safe, learning environments I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. They had the talent and the drive, they were wise, warm, and intelligent, and most importantly, they had excellent relationships with the students.
I'm taking classes right now, classes that instill future teachers with the desire, need, and incredible want to deal with students who are under-privileged, poor, and ultimately unmotivated. Without the help we're getting, we'll become a statistic, one of the over 30% of teachers who will stop teaching within four years of entering their first classroom. They're trying to show us how times have changed and that we'll change with it and that we'll be able to cope with the new situations that arise and challenges our authority, knowledge, and respect.
It's crazy how every instructor is constantly reassuring us that everything will be fine... because things will turn hellish at two major points in our career. The first day, and somewhere in late fall. This is besides having to deal with everyday things like parents, discipline, and evaluations of both yourself by your peers and the students.
Coming this fall, if (and more likely WHEN) I receive a position this fall, I will become an official intern with that school district that I join. I will be the teacher of record (the correct title of a classroom's teacher) and will be entitled to full pay and benefits. Of course, I won't really get into any teachers' unions, but that's another subject. Most importantly, I'll have a classroom and students of my own. I'll show them why I like what I'm doing and why they should too. One of the things I'm concerned with is how students are learning more and more towards an obsession with money. They wear shirts that have dollar signs on them, they have green shoes that sport pictures of bills, and most importantly, they talk about it a lot. Many of these teens just don't have any of it. Unless you deal drugs, in which case, you have plenty of it. While I substituted, I talked to a couple of drug dealers from different schools, and they always have a lot of money, and what's worse, they love to show it off.
The sad thing is that most of those students who wear lots of clothing emphasizing greed are probably the least likely to obtain any wealth, and they're looking in all of the wrong places for it. I just hope that they spend enough time on schoolwork so that they won't spend the rest of their lives as unhappy dropouts, and I've already decided that I'm not going to do many favors and try to give kids passing grades who don't deserve it.
Teaching is a complicated profession, one that takes heart, dedication, and patience. It also takes a lot of help. The state of California will spend about $10,000 per teacher on support programs to assist those in their first couple of years. Since then, teacher drop out rate has been hovering around 10%. I think I'll have it good, seeing how some of my friends are doing in their respective fields. Teaching, in my opinion, is a lot of fun and is a good challenge. I never really had the opportunity to tell people about my experiences in substitute teaching. Like the time I was hugged by a student for just being nice to him. Like the moments where kids thank me for being fair and respectful. For caring, something they don't always get outside of school. I'm definitely not changing lives, but I hope to get to that point sometime in my career.
I just wanted to share a not-so-regular substitute day:
I was a substitute for a lady who was on campus, she just wanted a helping hand with one of the last days of school. This help I was providing consisted of purchasing Chinese food at her expense for her anger-management class for doing such a good job of not getting into any fights or yelling at teachers, which, coincidentally, angered a lot of the other teachers on campus and caused resentment among many other students who were not acting up or giving attitude. Rewarding problem students this way who are behaving as expected are probably just being spoiled. Anyway, I just wanted to be the guy who wasn't caught in the middle of this, so *I* go to be the lucky one who had to bring a large amount of Chinese food into campus without causing a ruckus. And this was practically the whole point of my being there. The lady took out one of her sick-leave days for me to do this one task, which was kind of odd. I got lucky and no one really said anything to me as I tried to sneak in this beer case - that's what the restaurant packed the food in - filled with Chinese. The rest of my day was spent eating some of that food and cleaning up. I guess subs are good for something.