Weekly Update

So I'm thinking that my goal should be a post a week. So far that seems reasonable and doable. And this last week has been an interresting one.

Monday brought with it my first parents upset with me (though they talked to the administration, not me about it). I suppose this means I've arrived as a teacher. : ) The Administration at Skyview backed me up and was totally supportive, so that helped. Then on Tuesday I had my first observation from my university supervisor. It went well in that she came to my harddest class and then helped me brainstorm ideas how to better manage them. She spent lots of extra time helping me and was late to another meeting because of it...she's amazing, great, understanding and HELPFUL! (not something I always run into at the U).

As far as curriculum goes, I've been learning alot about what NOT to do, especially when teaching the math side of science. I never realized how unqualified I am to teach math. Sure I've always been good at it, but I'm not used to thinking about what the students need to be taught as far as basic math skills, I just jumped into using them. That won't happen again. Needless to say, the last unit was very difficult and many of the students struggled. That led me to feeling down and question if I really can be a good teacher like I've thought and wanted. A nice chat w/ Ingrid helped reaffirm where I'm at and that I just need to keep at it. Once we started moving into our new unit the math went away and I gave a deliberatly simple assignment to hopefully boost student confidence. Hopefully the combination of the two will get them back on board w/ the topic.

The last two days (Thursday and Friday) my CT was home and not at school. The first day her son was sick, and then Friday she was sick. So it was me and the sub both days, which ment it was basically just me. No offence to my CT, but I think that's what I needed and it was actually nice to have her out of the room. I was just up to me and I was forced to make descisions and students couldn't bypass me (not that they would try, of course. : P ).

I had alot of fun yesterday. As a part of teaching Conduction and Radiation I had student volunteers come up front and demonstrate some REALLY simple concepts. I totally hammed it up, making it clear that it was really simple, but pretending it was complex. It went off really well w/ the students. I don't know for sure if it really helped them understand it, but I can hope.

Last night consisted of a small Dr. Seuss art show at BellSquare. Not as cool as the one I went to last year, but neat never the less. This weekend I have no plans or responsibilities except church for the first time in a long time. I do have papers to grade, but since they all came in late, I don't really have a deadline to get them done. : )

Ok, off to do the weekend stuff, like laundry, vacuuming and such. Hope this update is enough for now, 'cause you probably won't get another one for a week or so!