I was asked to teach coach for summer school. This is the second time I’ve said yes. It’s fun. A complete 180 from my year working as a high school teacher. I have tons of planning time, people stop in to see how the day’s going, I can actually go over lesson plans for the week with a fellow teacher, and the kids are, almost exclusively, engaged and excited. And everything I plan has an element of fun to it. I ran a pirate theme for the summer. I wore a costume, built cardboard boats, incorporated relay races and feats for treasure. It culminated in an epic pirate ship and water balloon battle between the fourth and fifth graders. It was bloody and beautiful.
At the end of the program, four teachers cornered me in a classroom. Four teachers gave me the teacher stare. And four teachers told me I was teaching kindergarten next year. Have you ever been faced with the power of four teacher stares? Once, right out of high school, my friends and I were toilet papering another friend’s house. Her mother was a kindergarten teacher. Sweetest woman on the planet, next to my mom. She came out in full teacher stare-down mode, and I’ve never been so terrified in my life. We all ran like hell, and I’m pretty sure I smelled flesh burning. Never did find out which one of us didn’t make it out. Anyway, faced with four such stares, I didn’t stand a chance. Not only do they want me to teach, they already went to the principal, and cleared it with him. They said it was mine if I wanted it. Shizer.
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Thoughts while jogging:
-Next time, don't do your stretches next to an ant's home. It'll give new meaning to "I've got ants in my pants." Well, no, I guess that's sort of the old meaning, as well.
-Songs grow lengthier when jogging. For example, behold my thought process: "Wow, I've been jogging for a while, now. It has to have been at least ten, fifteen minutes. Maybe even twenty. I can't believe this one song has been playing the whole time. I didn't even know Alkaline Trio HAD any jam sessions on here. Oh. Four minutes, huh?
I've been in to work today, and I may be going in tomorrow, as well as doing some homework, which has me worried about burning out. I've been more excited about going in, though, as it doesn't feel like it's just me, on my own. The team has been there just as much as I have. And my mentor teacher is four feet away from my door. And she had to leave early one afternoon for her daughter, and felt so bad that she came back afterwards to touch base with me. Did I mention that my last mentor, at the high school, never once came to my room? In the whole year? And she left at 2:45 (or 3:15? I forget the day's times) every day to pick up her daughter?
Yeah. Nice change. Oh, and I had seven out of nineteen kids show up for back to school night. Out of those seven, three don't know any or nearly any English. I think I'm looking at close to half my class in a similar boat. We'll see.
I'm so going to be teaching kindergarten.
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