Hello all! Welcome back! I hope ya’ll had a great weekend. I
know that I sure did! Including a three and a half hour nap yesterday. It. Was.
Awesome.
And I needed that sleep to get ready for this week. First
thing this morning we found out that one of our students… who complained of his
hand hurting Friday afternoon after falling on the soccer field, had broken his
wrist. He is in a soft cast and sling. Oops. The p.e. teacher, the secretary,
my rockstar teacher, and I all thought that it was nothing, just an injury that
he was milking. That’s the hard thing about kids this age. It’s very hard to
tell when they have a serious injury or sickness because to them, EVERY injury
or sickness is a serious one. I suppose we just try to cover all of our bases
and hope for the best. We also have an enormous respect issue with another of
our boys. He is uninterested, disrespectful, and purposely mean to others. It’s
a difficult issue to address….
Good thing that I have 9 more weeks to practice. Can you believe it?! This is my 6th
week of working at St. Michael’s... although it’s technically only my 4th
week of teaching. And I almost have the entire classroom already. Pretty cool.
A little stressful, but pretty cool.
A little insight…
For those of you who don’t realize (recently, it’s come to
my attention that many people don’t), lesson planning is by far the hardest
part of teaching. Teaching itself comes very naturally to me. I instinctively
check for student understanding, look for participation, and differentiate for
different student needs. It’s one thing to know and actively be able to do
these things, but it’s completely another to write down each detail of when,
and how, and where, and why you’re going to do everything. GAHH. Honestly, I’ve
only written a handful of complete lesson plans (in the official Briar Cliff
format… it’s quite thorough), but lesson plans are something that you must have
for each lesson you teach. For an elementary teacher, that’s about 5-6 lessons each
day. When my lessons come from another source such as the teacher’s manual,
they are fairly short and include objectives, intro, lesson, activity, and
conclusion. It might fit on a post it note. :) (it’s pretty cool actually!) But
when I come up with my own lessons (when those creative juices are flowing), it
takes a long time. It might take me an hour to write a lesson that only takes a
half hour to teach. The time commitment is real. Teachers are some dedicated
individuals! :) Hopefully someday soonish I’ll be experienced enough (and have
enough resources) to master the art of winging it. I suppose we’ll see.
At the end of today, another teacher in the building stopped
by with copies of an article entitled Needed: A report card on America’s
parents. I LOVE IT. If you’ve got some extra time, please check it out!
So worth the read. Not everything can be put on the
teachers. And before I start preaching or venting, I’ll sign off for the day.
Until tomorrow…
Peace, love, and controversy,
Jayna
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