Week 3: Intention

Intention is a word that's been stuck in my head the past few weeks. It's something that's been continually impressed upon me in church the last couple of years. Life is too precious, and our calling is too high to waste away in front of the television or on the Internet (guilty). As a Christ-follower, I want to be sure that I approach life and the relationships in it with intention. When people look at me, I want them to see the same grace, mercy, and love that was extended to me at the cross. As teachers, we're forced to take this intention a step further than most. We need to be intentional with the way we approach our students.

Recently, I was talking with my cooperating/master teacher about some of the students' home situations. These situations cover the entire spectrum from two-parent households to situations where the child isn't living with either biological parent. There are more, but some just break my heart. Talking about these kids' living situations sparked two things in my mind:

1) I'm extremely thankful for my family (specifically parents). Through an incredibly difficult situation came one of the most beautiful pictures of God's sovereignty I've seen. My family is the most perfectly blended family you'll ever meet. Ask me about it sometime.

2) There are kids in my class that aren't loved on nearly as much as they need to be. It's my responsibility then to love on them and speak life into them. So, I've picked out students in my class who I know receive very little encouraging words at home, and I intentionally encourage them throughout the day. Whether I just smile at them once in a while, or praise their efforts a little more, or talk to them about everyday things, I am intentional with the way I approach them. I encourage everyone to pick out a couple of kids that you know aren't loved on enough, and love on them.

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We recently started a unit on pirates. The class started brainstorming things they knew about pirates. These were things like, "They wear eyepatches." "They have parrots." "They make you walk the plank." "They search for treasure." You know, typical Disney things. I started thinking, if you asked people 300 years ago if they liked pirates, they'd think you were insane. Pirates were some of the most evil people in the world. They raped and pillaged and murdered. Somehow, we've managed to romanticize and glorify them. Pirates are the terrorists of 300 years ago. If this is true:

• Will kids dress as terrorists for Halloween 300 years from now?
• Will there be professional sports teams named The Al' Qaeda?
• Will Disney start a popular movie franchise about suicide bombers?

Just a few musings. Sorry if I offended anyone.

Anecdotal Records

- While walking car-riders out the front door at the end of the day, one of the girls in my class wasn't paying attention and went face-first into the metal post in the double doors. She bruised her dignity.

Things That I Did in Second Grade That They Still Do

- Read Goosebumps

- "Read" I Spy's

- Sharpen their pencil all the way down to the eraser. (I hate this so much.)

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That's it for this week. Oh, and I think I found "The Look." It looks like this:





See you next week!

Week 2: Faces

One of the things we learn in class and in different classroom management books is that teachers need a 'look.' Not the mom-jeans and denim vest look that so many of our teachers rocked when we were in school, but a 'look.' You know, that seemingly magic ability good teachers have to glance at a student and get them back on task. The 'look' that immediately strikes fear into the heart of the most problematic student.

I've been working on mine. My problem is consistency. I have trouble making my face do the same thing twice. So, frequently, my 'looks' make students giggle rather than cower. Here are a few samples:




Clearly, I need practice.

Interestingly though, I've found myself using facial expressions to communicate more and more often. I have a "confused/scrunched-up" face, a "way-too-impressed by your moderately entertaining story" face, and a "random expression explosion" face I use for no reason at all. I would post pictures of these, but it took me twenty minutes to post the first three. LA-ZY.

Anecdotal Records:

- During class, Student G started singing the lyrics to The Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up" song. I know the lyrics to that song, and it is NOT something a seven year-old should be singing. I stopped her, quickly.

- I still owe Student M $10.

- Maine is not a peninsula. Florida is.

- Some students are just going to fidget and move around all the time. It's who they are. As long as they aren't bothering anyone, let them fidget.

- Indoor recess for two straight weeks is bad for the students and the teachers.

- I'm getting used to eating lunch with teachers.

- I'm learning what does and does not constitute a visit to the nurse.

Nurse Visits

1. "I can't hear out of my left ear."
2. "I stabbed myself with my pencil and can't get the lead out."
3. "I have a weird rash."

Yes, please go to the nurse.

These first two weeks I've been learning a lot. I've only taught two lessons so far, but I quickly realized that classroom management is much easier to talk about than to actually do. Redirecting off-task students without breaking the flow of my lesson is something I'll be working on in the next few weeks.

I have found myself being able to the control the class in the hall and during transitions more easily. So, that's encouraging. I know it's going to take years before I'm able to consider myself a good teacher, but it's nice to know that I can notice a few things that I'm improving at right now.

While typing this entry I was listening to this bangin' new rap album I just downloaded. So, if any of my syntax or grammar is off, blame it on the hip hop.

Keep it real.

Week 1: Acclimatization

I had forgotten how long a full school day is. I spent most of the first day clock watching. So, I've started thinking of the school day in three parts.

Pre-lunch

Post-lunch/pre-specials

Post-specials

It helps the day go faster.

Anecdotal Records:

- Yesterday, I took the six GT kids to the library to do a pull-out math lesson. While they were filling out their "Magic Squares" I noticed that the girl to my right was copying the boy sitting across from her. I also noticed that her magic square was wrong even with the copying. She had been copying his work upside down. So I told her, "Student A, I see you copying, and I just want you to know you're copying him wrong." BAM! ROASTED!

- Everyday, several times a day, Student M demands that I pay him back $10.

- Second graders have a disease that causes them to crawl underneath desks during lessons.

- If you ever need a pencil while in a second grade class, just look on the floor. There are bound to be 3 or 4 down there.

- QOTD: "You should drop it like it's hot." (I don't know WHAT they were talking about.)

- QOTD 2: "I'm REALLY interested in maps." (The way she said it made me laugh.)

- I'm still not 100% comfortable eating lunch with a bunch of teachers. I always feel like I'm about to get in trouble.

- About once a day, I have to remind myself that I'm not a student.

- I got my first drawing today. It looks like this:

That's money falling out of the sky. It makes me feel like a rap star. I'm in the middle. Apparently, my students are over six feet tall.

I'm sure I'll blog more serious stuff later. But for now, I'm going to try to write down all of the funny things my students do and say.

L8r.

Introduction

web log, weblog, weBlog, blog

Above is the etymology of blog for those who were unaware. Also, qwerty keyboards are so called because of the six top-left letters on the keyboard. (dedicated to my fellow student teachers)

Well, it's started.

I guess technically it starts on September 14th, but for the purposes of this blog it starts now. These next five school days are just observations, but I'm still in the classroom for 2.5 hours a day. Starting a week from Monday, it'll be upped to 7+ hours a day...uh, yikes.

I'm student teaching in a 2nd grade class at Baxter Elementary in Midlothian, TX. There are 20 students in the class (13 boys, 7 girls) and they all seem surprisingly normal for 7 year-olds. Or maybe my 7 year-old sister, Libby, has helped me acclimatize quickly.

Initial impressions were, well, impressive. Mrs. Caldwell, my cooperating teacher, seems genuinely kind and excited for me to be there. Within my first hour there, I was helping the students construct "super sentences" about dinosaurs. Oh, that's another thing. All of the students seem to be excited to have me in the class. That's always a relief, when the students accept you. They'll probably like me until I get to crack the whip and lay down the law. We don't want them forgetting who's boss...

Funny anecdote for the day: I quickly discovered the child with the most, uh, personality in the classroom. I hadn't been sitting down for 5 minutes in the class, when Unnamed Student A walked right up to me, looked me in the eye, stepped on my foot, then walked off. That kind of threw me at first, but I just shook it off. A few minutes later he walked by me on his way to the pencil sharpener and tapped me on the shoulder. When I looked around to see what he wanted, he gave me one of those "It wasn't me!" looks and says, "I think it was a ghost. Yeah, it was a ghost," then walked off. I think we'll get along.

I have to come clean. I'll be honest and say that 2nd grade didn't even crack the top 3 in preferred grades to student teach in, but I think this semester will be a good experience and maybe even have an influence on what grade levels I'm open to teaching in the future.

This will be a sporadically updated blog. You just can't force these things, you know? You have to wait until inspiration strikes. So until then, goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.