Teaching Moments

Teaching brings me some great moments, and some not-so-great moments. I thought I'd share one of each for today.

The great moment. Even though this happened to a good friend of mine, I promised her I'd post it, and it was sure a great moment for me.

It is her second year of teaching math, and since the quarter just ended and she handed out a bunch of grades, she thought she should get graded too. So she had her kids write an anonymus grade for her, and tell her what they liked/didn't like about class and what she could do to improve etc as long as it was contructive and realistic. (things like less homework and more playtime didn't make the cut as realistic. Shocker.)
So as she is paging through her grades she see's lots of A's and "you're a great teacher!" etc, as she should (you know you deserve it and don't even try to be bashful about it!). But she gets to one page where she is given a solid B and this explanation: "you are a good teacher, but nothing exceptional."
She shared this with me and another seasoned collegue, and we thought it was just hilarious. :) So now we're keeping track of our non-exceptional moments and laughing whenever we get a chance. We like to take advantage of the ridiculous to keep ourselves sane.

a not-so-great moment. I have one student who no matter what I do gives me a rather unpleasant attitude, and it can become quite a disruption to the other students. Today she wanted to leave to go to the bathroom, so I let her, then she came back and insisted she be allowed to leave again to get notes from her locker. This would have wasted a significant amount of time for her, so I said no, live with it for today. She should have been more prepared for class.

She decided to argue, and eventually I chewed her out for the attitude, told her to get her stuff and she couldd come in at luch for a detention.

She came in and I gave her two options, study for tomorrows quiz (I don't need to I know it all, waste of time) or clean my white-boards (they're just going to get dirty again, I don't see why I have to do this). I calmly explained to her that I wasn't here to argue with her, but she knew her options. She was so stubborn. I just wish she would learn to help herself. She eventually cleaned the whiteboards, but I expect I may have to see her a few more times at lunch before things improve. It makes me very sad for her, becasue the only one that suffers from her silly teenage pride is her. I jut wish there was a way to tell her that....


Don't worry everyone, the good moments outweigh the not-so-good, and I still love my job. Even if we're all just good teachers, nothing exceptional. :)

This last weekend we went on a trip to Colorado for Alex's birthday. It was super fun to play up in the mountians with the in-laws. But the trip can be pretty boring through southern Utah and Price, sooooo my nerdy side kind of came out.

For the geology class I teach, my Dad let me borrow his copy of Roadside Geology of Utah, so I spent the whole drive referencing the book and taking pictures out the windows! It was a great way to made some muddy old hill look more interesting when you know that it used to be a cretaceous shale deposit and holds lots of dinosaur prints.

So I know that may sound boring, and to Alex it may have been but I was sure entertained. And then we got to the Colorado river canyon on I-70.... Gorgeous.

Once I figure out how, I'll try to post some pictures. I also promised I make a travel slide show for me geology classes.

Strike!

So I took Luna (5 month old puppy) to the park tonight with friend/downstairs-neighbor and their dog Nala.

These two dogs are a few months apart, and play rough. It often resembles a rodeo. Theres herding, kicking and the ultimate goal is to get the other dog on the ground.

Well tonight it was downstairs-neighbor that ended up on the ground.

Fortunately nobody was hurt, but I'm pretty sure Nala altered her course in order to knock him over; like a homing missile, or a curve ball when bowling. It was a good solid hit too. I fell over laughing and had to struggle to keep from peeing my pants.

Good times, good bowling, good dogs.

As a first blog post, I would like to note a few things I have learned so far in my very brief teaching career.

1. Teachers make crappy students. I have ONE count it- one- class left to finish my BS, I'm taking it as an evening class once a week. Its art histroy. Not my thing. After a whole day of standing up and being active and engaged and helping teenagers learn, really the last thing I want to do is sit in a desk and take notes for two and a half hours. This is a major weakness of mine, and it sure hasn't gotten easier. I should work on that. :)

2. Kids are really funny. It sure seems like everytime I'm tired, or crabby these kids find some way to make me laugh. I don't know how they do it, but they know that I love Achmed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go) and they quote it just to make me laugh. Its great.

3. Friends really make you as a person. I have some great friends. You should know who you are. But now as I have a chance to watch these highschool kids grow up and make decisions, I ache for them, because I know their friends aren't going to help them make good decisions. I would love to tell them what a big deal these people are, and how careful they should be. But alas, thats not my place. I can only give advice when they ask for it. Sometimes thats a pretty hard thing to watch. But I do what I can.

I've also learned that I really do love teaching even if its super stressful, I have a wonderful husband who is an amazing support, and puppies are great for stress releif.