mrs. newbie

young girls walk down the halls in clothing more suited for a club than a school.  add to this the fact that they are 15 and 16, and it’s all I can do to keep from asking them how many babies they want by the time they graduate high school. 

1.  learning not to take it personally when a student decides to skip your class is not easy.  what am I doing wrong?  why is this student disengaged?  what can I be doing better?  nevermind the other 29 students who attend regularly.

2.  I was under the impression that videos in the classroom were something that were considered taboo, shown with doors closed, lights low.  great idea for days of no sleep, headache or heaven forbid hangover.  but no.  every teacher in the department has come to me promising videos for every unit.  I’d be willing to be that if resources were combined, they’d be able to cover the whole year.  

the “high roman empire” is not actually a modern day continent.  it does sound like a damn cool theme park, though. 

i am seriously considering opening this up to my 12th grade civics class.  not as a requirement, but as an option that would allow them to get additional participation points.  

thoughts?

my graduate program emphasized that desks should not be arranged in traditional rows, that this would somehow demean the quality of learning.  last period, I worked with the teacher I share the room with to reorganize the desks to create an environment conducive to learning.  we worked for twenty minutes before settling on a doubled rowed U-shape.

as we were finishing, two other teachers came in the room.  they exchanged a look and started laughing a bit.  I expected the teacher I share a room with, we’ll call him H, to defend our design but he seemed as much in on at as they were. 

these two other teachers, one of whom had graduated from the same graduate program as me a few years prior, then explained to me the ‘rule of porkers and panties’.  the first teacher demonstrated that the overweight kids could not get into the desks, and would constantly be facing the question of, “do I shove my ass or crotch in my neighbor’s face?” when getting in and out.

the second teacher then demonstrated how tenth grade girls sit when they’re wearing short skirts and dresses.  teacher H jumped in, and showed where little Johnny’s eyes would then be for the remainder of the period.  “You’ll know what color the panties are, that’s for sure!” one told me.  “Or who doesn’t wear any!” the other added. 

graduate school didn’t teach me about porkers and panties. 

we’re off today, recognizing rosh hashanah.  students will have two days of class this week, a wednesday and a friday, and one wonders what the point is.  

my dad is also a teacher, and he began school a week before we did.  seems to make more sense, if you ask me. 

no classes dissolved into anarchy, no one fell asleep.  chalking this one up to a success. 

all of my classes did the same activity.  signs were spread out around the room, ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”.  I made a powerpoint with loaded statements, and the students had to move throughout the room to reach their appropriate viewpoint.  all classes participated. 

my last period class, seniors, surprised me the most.  they came in radiating “don’t want to be here”, yet got the most involved.  we got stopped on “the us was justified in entering afghanistan and iraq after 9/11”, as each side argued their point and attempted to sway their classmates.  the atmosphere was electric. 

caught in their increasingly enthusiastic banter, I found myself wondering why they needed me at all.  it was only when I grounded myself did I realize that their arguments were based on some of the more prominent news headlines and stories.  no deeper understanding, no complex theories.  welcome back to reality. 

let the journey begin.