Thursday, May 28, 2009

What a horrible day it's been, though I honestly feel peaceful right now. I did many new things today, and experienced many new things as well. Here is a timeline of my day:
1. I arrived early with my counterpart, Kara as usual. We hung out in her teacher's classroom and talked with her and made photocopies as usual.
2. I made my way over to Ms. Greene's room, though she wasn't there, so I sat in Ms. Bael's room and talked with her for a while.
3. I took attendance for Ms. Greene's homeroom, and then we decided that for the points system we would make big charts and laminate them so we could just erase and write new numbers as need be. So I was able to go to the media center and blow up some behavior charts and laminate them.
4. Ms. Greene taught today so when I got back to class I observed her for the first time. I think I've inspired her to be more interactive. Her lesson was about friendship in Bridge to Terabithia. She did a reading about friends, asked students who they would take to a deserted island with them, had them discuss how to make a friend and how to keep a friend, played a memory game with best friends as partners (Romeo and Juliet, Lady and the Tramp), and then she read aloud the third chapter. I was really impressed, and the points system seemed to work decently.
5. Until we got to the second class. They couldn't seem to listen to anything, and they would not be controlled. Ms. Greene got very upset, and sometimes I think that students need to see the teacher angry - not that it really affected them. She ended up making them write a whole paragraph about a Russian proverb that said something like "tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are." She then had me sit down and read through them, giving them each a grade. I pulled a Mrs. Gleason and basically wrote a paragraph to each of them telling them how to improve.
6. Then was lunch. There were a couple kids who had lunch detention, so I went down and got them. Then Ms. Greene was called down to pick up her class because something had happened. So I sat in the classroom with the students for a long time wondering what had happened, and finally a bunch of girls come in crying. Here a boy in their class had been arrested and taken away in front of all of them which really upset the girls. I'm not sure what happened, but he hit someone and as the security guard tried to restrain him he kept resisting and hitting people. So I know that he should have controlled his actions, but it sounds like a lot of it didn't have to happen - apparently he was provoked to hit this person, and then no one listened to him but instead just arrested him. All in front of the students. As if they don't see enough of that on the streets, their classmate and friend was taken away in handcuffs and paraded for all to see. I do not think the situation was handled well.
7. So I took these girls who were in hysterics into an empty classroom and I had no idea what to do, so I just sat there with them. Eventually the social worker came in and they all started talking at once, some yelling at each other and blaming it on one another.
8. So Ms. Greene and I improvised, and some of the girls asked her to read "A Tell-Tale Heart"
which she did extremely well. Almost as soon as we were done it was time for them to go.
9. I gave some of my classes the chance to "critique" me, and I had them write down some things I had done well and some things I should work on. I found that I really can't take these personally. Some of them were great, and about 5 of them didn't like me. Honestly, I have to take these with a grain of salt. I feel like two weeks wasn't enough, but I feel like today makes me never want to go back to teaching.
10. All in all, today drained me. The students' emotions and lack of respect really got me down. I know that I can't base my whole experience on one day, but I was hoping to end on a more positive note. I really love these children, but I feel like they just don't care. And how can I help students who don't care?