My mom was saying that since I am using this as our scrapbook /journal I should really write about some of my teaching experiences. Friday is the day I look forward to. Don't get me wrong I love what I do but by the time weekends come lets say that I am a little more excited than the students.
I love my first two classes they are fundamentals of algebra -these are students that have failed math and struggle quite a bit. There are 25-28 students in both of these classes. Many of the students have a hard time adding, subtracting, multiplying, and division is completely foreign to them. It takes some a little while to figure out what 2*2 (for those of you thinking it is four). They are doing great and we are up to almost the whole class with 90% or higher on their multiplication tables 1-12. Hurray -we have been working on it since August. Some students are in my class because of behavioral problems -one of my students threw a chair at his last teacher (who was a big guy) so they transferred him in my class -(no worries though he is great in my class and my top student). About 1 in every 5 of my students have a parole officer for various things. While these student are a challenge -sometimes the bigger the challenge the greater the reward.
My last three classes are Geometry with anywhere from 32-37 students in a class. My Geometry class are pretty good the students work well individually and I don't usually have to monitor behavior problems as much -but there are always a few of those students that like to be the exception.
Here is a little brief summary of a few things that stand out in my mind so far this year (names are fake but the stories are definitely true).
"Veronica" -stood up and called me a whore last year out of the blue -she was suspended and kicked out of my class. This year she is back in my class and after a brutally honest pep talk she is on of my best students and is always eager to begin :)
"Kiley" -Wrote a note about me (because I needed her to finish her quiz and not write notes -go figure). It was full of profanity and calling me all kinds of things -she is now suspended and will probably be kick out of my class (we'll see that happened Friday). But I have to laugh when many of the words are spelled wrong -you'd think at least she could spell them right. This happens once a month with her talk about PMS.
"Rudy" -has an extremely hard home life..he has decided that he doesn't want to turn out like his parents and is doing all he can to take as many college classes in high school. He came into my class so I could help him look over different classes he could take. Even summer school because he would rather be at school than home.
"Darley" -got in her second fight this year (outside of my classroom)and now has assult on her record. The girl she hit miscarried and the other one was black and blue. She did not consider it a big deal to have an assult on her record -after pulling her to the side and explaining what an assult is and how it will affect her she has decided that she will not fight again. Cross your fingers!
"Georgia" -got upset that she was sitting by a particular girl one day and walked out of class. I called administration to let them know. Five minutes later she shows back up and is standing in my doorway. I ask her to wait for me in the hall -she ignores me drops her backpack and told the other girl "I will take you down right now" as she starts walking. I interveened and had to grab both of her arms and push her out of my class -where another teacher luckily walked by and walked down to the office with her. Needless to say she is no longer attending our school.
"Sara" decided to try out for basketball. I would ask her how it was going because they try-out for three days and it is pretty tough. She had mentioned to me how worried but that she was going to run until she passed out if it ment making the team. On the third day when I arrived to school she was waiting by my door for me to get there to let me know that she made the team!
While I am sure I could think of a hundred more stores these ones stand out the most. All in all you have try to remember the good and to laugh off the bad.
I love my first two classes they are fundamentals of algebra -these are students that have failed math and struggle quite a bit. There are 25-28 students in both of these classes. Many of the students have a hard time adding, subtracting, multiplying, and division is completely foreign to them. It takes some a little while to figure out what 2*2 (for those of you thinking it is four). They are doing great and we are up to almost the whole class with 90% or higher on their multiplication tables 1-12. Hurray -we have been working on it since August. Some students are in my class because of behavioral problems -one of my students threw a chair at his last teacher (who was a big guy) so they transferred him in my class -(no worries though he is great in my class and my top student). About 1 in every 5 of my students have a parole officer for various things. While these student are a challenge -sometimes the bigger the challenge the greater the reward.
My last three classes are Geometry with anywhere from 32-37 students in a class. My Geometry class are pretty good the students work well individually and I don't usually have to monitor behavior problems as much -but there are always a few of those students that like to be the exception.
Here is a little brief summary of a few things that stand out in my mind so far this year (names are fake but the stories are definitely true).
"Veronica" -stood up and called me a whore last year out of the blue -she was suspended and kicked out of my class. This year she is back in my class and after a brutally honest pep talk she is on of my best students and is always eager to begin :)
"Kiley" -Wrote a note about me (because I needed her to finish her quiz and not write notes -go figure). It was full of profanity and calling me all kinds of things -she is now suspended and will probably be kick out of my class (we'll see that happened Friday). But I have to laugh when many of the words are spelled wrong -you'd think at least she could spell them right. This happens once a month with her talk about PMS.
"Rudy" -has an extremely hard home life..he has decided that he doesn't want to turn out like his parents and is doing all he can to take as many college classes in high school. He came into my class so I could help him look over different classes he could take. Even summer school because he would rather be at school than home.
"Darley" -got in her second fight this year (outside of my classroom)and now has assult on her record. The girl she hit miscarried and the other one was black and blue. She did not consider it a big deal to have an assult on her record -after pulling her to the side and explaining what an assult is and how it will affect her she has decided that she will not fight again. Cross your fingers!
"Georgia" -got upset that she was sitting by a particular girl one day and walked out of class. I called administration to let them know. Five minutes later she shows back up and is standing in my doorway. I ask her to wait for me in the hall -she ignores me drops her backpack and told the other girl "I will take you down right now" as she starts walking. I interveened and had to grab both of her arms and push her out of my class -where another teacher luckily walked by and walked down to the office with her. Needless to say she is no longer attending our school.
"Sara" decided to try out for basketball. I would ask her how it was going because they try-out for three days and it is pretty tough. She had mentioned to me how worried but that she was going to run until she passed out if it ment making the team. On the third day when I arrived to school she was waiting by my door for me to get there to let me know that she made the team!
While I am sure I could think of a hundred more stores these ones stand out the most. All in all you have try to remember the good and to laugh off the bad.
6 comments:
Oh man, I am scared for you with some of the stuff you deal with! You're such a little thing:-) But it is cool to hear what your classes and students are like. Teachers really do desserve so much more than they get.
Wow! I am glad I teach elementary! The worse I deal with is kids who cry when they don't get what they want or get their feelings hurt! I am super glad we have people like you who will teach those older less adorable kids!
Holy crap! Where do you teach? Kids these days, I'm glad you have a few good stories mixed in there, but I admire you for sure!
this was fun to hear about your job. you're doing a lot of good, ashley, and sounds like you try to treat your kids as individuals and take interest in them. good for you.
I'm always surprised that you ended up in high school since you like the younger middle grades so much, but it sounds like you're doing awesome. I had a student write a note to a friend saying that she felt sorry for my husband. I got a pretty good kick out of that one.
Are you ever afraid? I'm such a wussy. How awesome to make such a difference in so many peoples lives. This was fun to read and see what high school is like now. Hopefully we didn't scare you too bad last night with all our wild kids.
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