Week 1... Again...

Well, who would've thought... I actually almost enjoy high school! The first 2 days were rough. I'm sure I'll have a few blunders throughout the next 8 weeks, so I'll be sure to include them under the heading "Faux Pas" at the end of each blog post.

The past 2 days were OK. Today was the best... probably because none of the 11th graders (the bulk of the classes we teach) were there. The first class, AP Language, went to the library and selected memoirs for an upcoming assignment. I chose one too and talked to some of the students about why reading this kind of "death, doom, and destruction" was different than reading a lot of the other stuff they read... This is sad, yes, but usually there is some kind of hope that comes from it. Options included Angela's Ashes, October Sky, A Child Called It, and more. During second block, the creative writing class, students worked on stories on laptops. I made some lesson plan materials and read more of Fahrenheit. The best was third block, 11th grade American Lit, when we had one student. He got a head start on next week's reading in F451.

At the end of the day, my co-op reviewed my lesson plans for Monday and Tuesday and had really good things to say about them. We talked about my personality in the classroom and how I am really into the idea of being involved in what the students are doing. We'll be going to a Lacrosse match and other sporting and theatrical events in the next few weeks, so that will be fun! Her review of my materials continued through the "Office Hours" at the end of the day, and as I was leaving, she called after me, "Great work so far." I'm really excited about that, especially after doing so poorly in Methods a lot of the time. The fact that my lesson plans are getting compliments from both co-ops is really encouraging to me.

I'm excited to put together the rest of next week's lesson plans (maybe through the middle of week 5) for the 11th grade class and see how things actually go on Monday! I only know a few names right now, but I am sure I will learn them quickly!

And now, in case you were wondering, here is my first Big Blunder:

Faux Pas #1: I had my laptop (obviously, since the kids in my co-op's classes have a lot of classwork time, and they took a test this week, and it's block scheduling... too much free time to sit and stare) and did a search for any wireless internet connections. One came up: E'town Int'l Airport. I'm thinking, "I didn't know they had an airport," and connected my comp to the network. I went through the day researching things pertinent to instruction: Vocab to teach with Fahrenheit 451, Activities to teach with Fahrenheit 451, etc, since this is my first time teaching a novel and I wanted to know what had been successful for other teachers out there. Then, during planning at the end of the day, I was reading the novel. Other teachers in the dept. in the planning room were looking up articles on Men'sHealth.com, playing on their cell phones, etc, and my co-op had disappeared and I couldn't focus on reading, so I started playing a game (oops!) on my computer (after all, no one else was working). Apparently, the game requires an internet connection, and when my co-op returned from her conversation she revealed that "Int'l Airport" is really the school's network, and obviously they track internet use. So from then on I used the net only for research, but the second day she said I can't use the internet AT ALL from my comp, because they had student teachers abuse the net in previous years. I have to use her comp if I want to get online for anything (which is annoying, but I get it.) So that problem's resolved.