The Stages of Teaching

First-year teachers go through stages (and I know that I am very susceptible to the feelings associated). The first stage is idealism. The new teacher is so full of hope and is going to make things better and touch every single student. The next stage is disillusionment. All the bureaucracy and Political Correctness and paperwork starts to add up, and you begin to feel overwhelmed with the responsibilities and the frustrations that come with it. Then, you realize that some of the students don't want to learn, and some of them are more interested in making your life a living _____.

So, anyway, after that, you either give in to the disillusionment and stop teaching, or you battle through it and enter the realism stage. In the realism stage, you know that you will not reach every student, but you can at least try. Some students will get it, but others will not, and there is nothing you can do to reach some. You can reach a couple you never thought you would. A girl that was in a few of my classes at BYU-Idaho got hired here also. She resigned at the disilluionment stage. The thoughts did cross my mind, but failure is just not an option for me. The good thing is that my vice principal restored some of that hope that gets lost so quickly. I really love this job. I am excited when I get up for work each day (even though I don't get up on time most days).

JPAS

My school district does a thing called Jordan Performance Appraisal System. It is meant to evaluate teachers on their teaching ability and give them a score based on very quantitative data. An administrator comes into a class and observes for 30-40 minutes. Our class times are 45 minutes long. The vice principal came in and observed me for about 35 minutes twice in the last two weeks. The first class she came into was my worst class. They do not behave well, do not like English, and most of them, although smart, do not act like they are very bright. They can understand the work, but for some reason think that it is cooler not to be intelligent. It is pretty frustrating, as you can imagine. The vice principal must have had a good Hawthorne effect aura about her because they were great that day. I taught a good lesson about grammar, and then did something out of our lit book. It was a good class, better than usual.

The second time that she came in, it was in my honors class, and I am glad she came in that day, because it was going to be a discussion day, and not a work day. We had a hard grammar lesson with lots of good questions and answers. We then read an excerpt from Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and then discussed how Maya Angelou is an excellent, descriptive writer who comes from an abusive background and how her background contributes to the depth of the title of that book. Each student had a selection that he or she would read and explain why they thought it was a good example of descriptive writing. It went really well and I think the students even liked it.

Two days ago my vice principal said that she needed to meet with me for five minutes and interrupted herself to compliment me on being an "excellent teacher", which is always nice to hear.

Today, she came into my classroom and talked to me about all that stuff. While we were talking, she confirmed the reasons I have always wanted to be a teacher. She said, to begin with, that I am a natural teacher, I asked excellent questions, and I engaged the students almost the whole time. She gave me a pretty good evaluation, I think. She sends the results in to the district, and then I will have an evaluation with her and the other administrators, I think. We will see how it all goes.

Cute Katya Story

Last weekend, we were over at Grandmother's and she was holding Katya. Katya looked at me for a while then turned to look up at Grandmother. As soon as Grandmother looked down at her, Katya blew a raspberry in her face, and then stared her down.

Video Games

One minute, Katya loves video games, the next she hates them! Maybe she was just mad that it was Daddy's turn again.

Adventures in Babysitting Part 2

Last night, Anna was taking a bath and it was time for her to get out. It was already after her bedtime, so I wanted her to get out quickly. I unplugged the bath and she said that she wanted to stay in. I said, "Oh, no, Anna! You don't want to get goosebumps, do you?" She jumped out of the bath so quickly that I barely caught her in the towel. I had to explain what goosebumps were and that they would not hurt her.

Adventures in Babysitting Part 1

The playroom downstairs was a pig-sty and Andrea had asked us to make sure the kids cleaned it up. Well, when I announced that they would be cleaning it, the most awful grown went up among the little whippersnappers. They were not happy that their evil babysitter was not only going to forbid them from having friends over today, but they would also have to clean!?! Not acceptable, and they let me know it.
I told them that we would play a really fun game. I walked to the closet and prayed that I would find some cards with numbers on them. I had them each draw a card and that card said how many things they should pick up (thanks Hunzy). They didn't really like it until I said there would be a prize for the winners.
Anna was more interested in picking up the stuff that she wanted to play with. She found a pacifier, and stuck it in, then found a stuffed kitty-cat, and that did the rest of the work for her, getting the card and attempting to pick the toys up. Anna gave up after a while and started playing with the toys we were trying to pick up. She did successfully manage to get some really big stuff, though: a rocking horse, a basonet, a chair (two, actually), and some big baskets.
Jonah quickly wanted to dominate the sport and ran back and forth as fast as he could, substituting small bits of trash and rice when there wasn't something bigger within 2 inches.
Eli also got into it, though not as much as Jonah, and did his fair share of running around.
Emma was disappointed with every card she drew, until I assured her it was a good card to have. She picked up all the real things though (what I mean is, she didn't care about picking up trash, just toys).
This is how it broke down:

• Anna 16 cards 65 points Prize: Picked up biggest items
• Emma 36 cards 258 points Prize: Most consistent drawing of numbers
• Jonah 56 cards 452 points Prize: Most cards and points
• Eli 46 cards 292 points Prize: Best ratio of cards to points

For those playing at home, I am an English Graduate, not a math man.

The illustrious prize?

Ice Cream for Dessert. (Don't tell Andrea.)