This past weekend, I made a trip to the "city" and did some shopping for school. It is test week for my classes and we are playing review games. My eighth graders are playing Dairy Survivor. It just so happens, that I am a firm believer in student buy-in, which requires enthusiasm on my part, and more importantly... Props! Or, the education term, realia. Not to be confused with regalia.
Obviously, I needed some bandanas and tiki torches for my education survivor. However, tiki torches are out of season and for some unknown reason, Wal-Mart really thinks their bandanas are awesome and overcharges for them.... (Hello, I am a teacher on a budget!) No worries, though. Being the resourceful student teacher that I am, I decided we could flex a little on our realia.
Instead of bandanas, I grabbed two colors of streamers... These could be torn into strips and used as armbands OR headbands. Totally versatile. Tiki torches were harder to switch out. Tall candle sticks were pricy when I needed 14, not to mention I would need some kind of candle holder. Before I gave up hope and retired to a fake torch drawn on the chalkboard, I spotted it. 16 tea candles for a DOLLAR! Cha-ching. We could work with that!
I gathered up my educational props, feeling more pumped than ever about teaching, when I started to notice something. The orange. The black. It wasn't an OSU shrine. It was a Halloween shrine filled with witches, spiders, bats, and sacred bags of candy. Like a ton of bricks, it hit me square in the forehead. CRAP! Halloween!
It wasn't that I had forgotten my most favorite holiday that happened on Monday... Rather it was that I forgot I was a real-life, community member in my rural town... I had a house. On a street. With kids living everywhere. I was responsible for being a candy dealer on Monday. And the kids would expect legit candy. Not that gross, off brand stuff, or weird objects like apples... They would want the real stuff. I needed to stash up!
I grabbed three bags thinking this would cover me! I live in a SMALL town, remember? I don't need too much. If I overstocked, I would inevitably eat the rest later that night while lesson planning.... So I was confident that the three bags would cover it.
Fast-forward to three hours ago...
First Trick-or-Treater at my door. Malibu is going nuts. She doesn't appreciate strangers at the house-perfect watch dog.
The first kid is about 2.5 years old, resembles a meth addict (I think she was a zombie.... What happened to lady bugs and bumble bees?... And the child is being carried by his/her mom. I didn't really know what to give the child/parent couple.... Do babies even eat candy? Do they prefer chocolate? Or suckers...? That might be a choking hazard. Perhaps a jaw breaker? Well, that is an even bigger choke risk. Unsure as to what I should hand out, I grabbed in my bowl and took a chance on whatever came out in my clenched fist.
It was so awkward because my face totally had, "What the heck?" plastered all over it. And I couldn't help it. I was totally justified. Why in the world is this mom trick-or-treating with a baby? Take a picture and email it out to friends and family... Because I am TOTALLY judging you for stealing my candy and eating while your baby sleeps tonight.
Rough first visitor.
My plan was to hand out 5-8 pieces of candy per visitor. No clue why I thought this was a good plan. I even asked kids if they wanted chocolate or non-chocolate at first. About an hour in, I started to become nervous. My pile of candy was turning into mole hills. There was still a good hour to go, and my stash (that I had been certain would last) is now vanishing into nothing.
I start considering my options...
A. Turn off the porch light and shut the door. Basically be "that" neighbor who hates halloween or who is lame and didn't buy enough candy.
B. Be honest with the kids and give one piece per kid until I run out, and then post a note on my screen door explaining my lameness.
C. Start handing out water bottles and stress the importance of hydration, while consuming exorbitant amounts of sugar.
D. Hand out tuna packets and Special K bars. Healthy snacks.
Let the record show that never did I think about breaking into my 4-24 packs of Diet Coke. No kid is worth that.
However, A-D were all legitimate answers to the looming problem of no candy.
About two hours into my first Halloween as a candy-hander-outter, I was over it. I was REALLY over any kid over the age of 15 with no costume on and asking for candy. I was over children who didn't say Trick-Or-Treat. I was over kids randomly walking into my house and pawing my minuscule clump of candy. Literally. I would open the door and they would cross the threshold and eye-molest my candy bowl. It was weird. When did that become socially acceptable? And I was over no one saying thank you. Manners are not dead, people. Please and thank you's are IMPORTANT. Finally, I was over the parents in a van at the end of the street picking up kids like creepers to take them to the next block. Walk. We live in a tiny town. One neighborhood. That walking it worth a pack of Skittles. All about the compromises!
For those of you who were curious, I stretched my candy and made it last. No water or tuna was handed out. I even managed to hold onto a Twix and Kit Kat for myself. (Fist pump) So proud! Hopefully, there will be no vandalism or damage to my truck tomorrow. That Dracula kid who only received a yellow sucker looked a little peeved...
Also, Malibu became real chill after the massive werewolf mask barked at her... I am worried that it broke her of her "guard dog" tendencies. She is my only safe guard here in the small town... You know to save me from the Jack the Ripper or Ted Bundy copy cats that lurk in the wheat field behind my house. (Sorry, watching too much ID-Investigation Discovery in the evenings.)
Overall, I had a successful Halloween! And lesson learned. Buy extra candy! Over estimate! And buy versatile back up items to hand out, like 100 calorie packs of popcorn.
Cameron's PSA: Don't forget to brush your teeth, kids & check that candy for any tampering!
Happy Halloween!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Top 10 Tips from a Student Teacher
Preface: I am half-way through my student teaching experience starting week 6 today. I am in a small (and by small I mean tiny) community where classes average around 26 students. As in, there are 26 students who are going to graduate in the senior class. There are no stoplights, street lamps, or gas stations. I teach 8th and 9th graders on a daily basis, and live alone in a room that I rent from a local homeowner.
10. Student Ag Teachers - Make sure you bring those boots and jeans! I have worn professional dress a total of 1 day. That one day we went to the school farm and drove T posts during the 8th grade class and visited a quail brooding pen during the plan period. Not to mention, there are two welding classes! Needless to say, at the end of the day, my dress pants were beyond trashed... Lesson learned. If the principal says you can wear jeans, don't feel the need to dress up for class... Because you WILL regret it and those $40 pants will be wrecked.
9. Invest in a DVR - Especially those student ag teachers out there in a tiny community like me! I am going, going, going for a week or two with no evening time and then I stop dead in my tracks and I am bored out of my mind in the evenings for a week or even on a weekend. What better way to catch up on grading than watching a week's worth of new shows? Or, let's get honest, procrastinating that Submission 3 artifact page or avoiding lesson planning. Why not online watching? Well, Hulu has gotten stingy and cannot be trusted to have the newest shows up for free, not to mention, I really like surfing the web with my ethernet cable, so I don't want the dang Hulu all up in my business. Thus a DVR would be a wonderful investment.
8. Get to know your copy machine and teacher resource room. As a student teacher, you are a glorified assistant secretary about 28% of the time. Trust me.... You will ALWAYS run out of paper the day worksheets are critical to the lesson and (of course) no one is around to show you where the paper is.... Learn from my mistake! And, figure out that staple/sort feature real quick! It is a TIME SAVER when you have a 15 page packet of notes for a class of 22 students. You don't have a student aid folks... Because you ARE the student teacher aid.
7. Get use to that constant state of trash around your room. Apparently the concept of "organizing and keeping track of papers" doesn't really kick in until post-high school. (And even then there are struggles if you know what I mean..) I am ALWAYS finding old worksheets and papers stuck in nooks and crannies around the classroom... Literally found one from 1996 last week. Not to mention, it looks like a recycling center on the floor of my classroom by Friday. I have yet to find a successful way to encourage and implement organization for the students in my classes. Open for suggestions!
6. Use cartoons and comics in your PowerPoint and put the title as, "Get It?" Those are the best times watching the students one-by-one getting the humor behind the comics. It is great to watch their expressions shift from confusion to understanding to laughter. Trust me. Totally worth the search on Google and the 2 minute distraction in class!
5. If something happens that you have no control over, blame it on the ag teacher! You are a student teacher, and being as such, you are not obligated to take the fall for the not so "cool" things that happen in the chapter or the ag classroom. Throwing the blame on the principal or cooperating teacher is totally acceptable at this point in your career.
4. Never underestimate the power of positive reinforcement on papers that you hand back. Hint: Stamps are cheaper than stickers. Invest in some quality stamps and stamp pads or a quality roll of stickers. My high schoolers LOVE them! And, you FINALLY get brownie points for being the student teacher (more often than not, you are berated, bashed, or made fun of for being the illegitimate student teacher) because the "real" teacher NEVER gives out stamps or sweet stickers! Rack up those brownie points, they help later on down the road!
3. Make sure you have a large budget set up for your diet coke (or another beverage addiction) needs. It may be cheaper to drink out of cans from a 24-pack but it is a hard hit on the grocery list when they are $8 per case and you buy 3-4 cases at a time. Just saying... The bill gets high QUICK! Also, make sure you keep that fridge stocked. Nothing is worse than having no cold cans of DC at 3:30 pm on a Wednesday afternoon.
2. Keep it real with students. Or at least as real as you possibly can. I have found that the best way to build rapport and get students on my side is to be honest. As a student teacher, they don't really give you the respect that they automatically give another adult in the building. You are one step above a substitute, but still many steps away from the librarian or secretary. There is a definite line that I do not cross (don't be their biffle!), but a little bit of honesty and real-life chats can go a long way. Be careful and use discretion, but if done correctly, you will reap some very helpful benefits in managing the classroom and building solid student teacher-student relationships!
1. Never underestimate the students in your classroom. They are sneaky, weird, silly, immature, wise, uncanny, witty, clever, dumb, ridiculous, loud, silent, curious, bored, engaged, fascinated, hating, and loving and every where in between... at any point in time during the day... It can change on a dime, so don't get comfortable. Go with the flow and don't become too discouraged when I student makes a gun out of his hand and fake shoots himself during your lesson or says the following phrase after you have passed out the worksheet you have labored over for 2 hours, "This is &#($^@ing stupid." While I would encourage you to make sure you shut it down and discourage similar behaviors in the future, I would similarly encourage you not to dwell on it. This seems to be totally normal and should be expected from high school students! Remember, you may be the first teacher (student or real life) that has asked them to do work in awhile. Some resistance at first is understandable.
In the end, the important factor remains to keep on keeping on, because you are an educator in training. And even though it is training for you, you are still teaching the future adults of the world. Every day, all day.
A daunting, scary, and exciting thought, right?!
Cheers to you all in college. Soak it up, because even though this is only semi-real life, it is an experience that makes me MISS college an indescribable amount.
- Miss Jones
Teaching. Is. Life.
10. Student Ag Teachers - Make sure you bring those boots and jeans! I have worn professional dress a total of 1 day. That one day we went to the school farm and drove T posts during the 8th grade class and visited a quail brooding pen during the plan period. Not to mention, there are two welding classes! Needless to say, at the end of the day, my dress pants were beyond trashed... Lesson learned. If the principal says you can wear jeans, don't feel the need to dress up for class... Because you WILL regret it and those $40 pants will be wrecked.
9. Invest in a DVR - Especially those student ag teachers out there in a tiny community like me! I am going, going, going for a week or two with no evening time and then I stop dead in my tracks and I am bored out of my mind in the evenings for a week or even on a weekend. What better way to catch up on grading than watching a week's worth of new shows? Or, let's get honest, procrastinating that Submission 3 artifact page or avoiding lesson planning. Why not online watching? Well, Hulu has gotten stingy and cannot be trusted to have the newest shows up for free, not to mention, I really like surfing the web with my ethernet cable, so I don't want the dang Hulu all up in my business. Thus a DVR would be a wonderful investment.
8. Get to know your copy machine and teacher resource room. As a student teacher, you are a glorified assistant secretary about 28% of the time. Trust me.... You will ALWAYS run out of paper the day worksheets are critical to the lesson and (of course) no one is around to show you where the paper is.... Learn from my mistake! And, figure out that staple/sort feature real quick! It is a TIME SAVER when you have a 15 page packet of notes for a class of 22 students. You don't have a student aid folks... Because you ARE the student teacher aid.
7. Get use to that constant state of trash around your room. Apparently the concept of "organizing and keeping track of papers" doesn't really kick in until post-high school. (And even then there are struggles if you know what I mean..) I am ALWAYS finding old worksheets and papers stuck in nooks and crannies around the classroom... Literally found one from 1996 last week. Not to mention, it looks like a recycling center on the floor of my classroom by Friday. I have yet to find a successful way to encourage and implement organization for the students in my classes. Open for suggestions!
6. Use cartoons and comics in your PowerPoint and put the title as, "Get It?" Those are the best times watching the students one-by-one getting the humor behind the comics. It is great to watch their expressions shift from confusion to understanding to laughter. Trust me. Totally worth the search on Google and the 2 minute distraction in class!
5. If something happens that you have no control over, blame it on the ag teacher! You are a student teacher, and being as such, you are not obligated to take the fall for the not so "cool" things that happen in the chapter or the ag classroom. Throwing the blame on the principal or cooperating teacher is totally acceptable at this point in your career.
4. Never underestimate the power of positive reinforcement on papers that you hand back. Hint: Stamps are cheaper than stickers. Invest in some quality stamps and stamp pads or a quality roll of stickers. My high schoolers LOVE them! And, you FINALLY get brownie points for being the student teacher (more often than not, you are berated, bashed, or made fun of for being the illegitimate student teacher) because the "real" teacher NEVER gives out stamps or sweet stickers! Rack up those brownie points, they help later on down the road!
3. Make sure you have a large budget set up for your diet coke (or another beverage addiction) needs. It may be cheaper to drink out of cans from a 24-pack but it is a hard hit on the grocery list when they are $8 per case and you buy 3-4 cases at a time. Just saying... The bill gets high QUICK! Also, make sure you keep that fridge stocked. Nothing is worse than having no cold cans of DC at 3:30 pm on a Wednesday afternoon.
2. Keep it real with students. Or at least as real as you possibly can. I have found that the best way to build rapport and get students on my side is to be honest. As a student teacher, they don't really give you the respect that they automatically give another adult in the building. You are one step above a substitute, but still many steps away from the librarian or secretary. There is a definite line that I do not cross (don't be their biffle!), but a little bit of honesty and real-life chats can go a long way. Be careful and use discretion, but if done correctly, you will reap some very helpful benefits in managing the classroom and building solid student teacher-student relationships!
1. Never underestimate the students in your classroom. They are sneaky, weird, silly, immature, wise, uncanny, witty, clever, dumb, ridiculous, loud, silent, curious, bored, engaged, fascinated, hating, and loving and every where in between... at any point in time during the day... It can change on a dime, so don't get comfortable. Go with the flow and don't become too discouraged when I student makes a gun out of his hand and fake shoots himself during your lesson or says the following phrase after you have passed out the worksheet you have labored over for 2 hours, "This is &#($^@ing stupid." While I would encourage you to make sure you shut it down and discourage similar behaviors in the future, I would similarly encourage you not to dwell on it. This seems to be totally normal and should be expected from high school students! Remember, you may be the first teacher (student or real life) that has asked them to do work in awhile. Some resistance at first is understandable.
In the end, the important factor remains to keep on keeping on, because you are an educator in training. And even though it is training for you, you are still teaching the future adults of the world. Every day, all day.
A daunting, scary, and exciting thought, right?!
Cheers to you all in college. Soak it up, because even though this is only semi-real life, it is an experience that makes me MISS college an indescribable amount.
- Miss Jones
Teaching. Is. Life.
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