It has been a wild couple of days since my teacher moved out of my classroom and into her new classroom. The substitute is really great, and definitely on top of his game, but obviously the lessons suffer when there's not a teacher in the room. One of the school administrators asked me to lead the lesson for today, which included four new vocabulary words. I said I would rather not, because City Year is actually supposed to avoid that very situation, and because my teacher had allowed me to pull my focus list students out during vocab days and we had been playing a game the students really liked (trashketball). But the admin put some pressure on me, saying that I knew how the lesson went and it was important for the class to stay on track yada, yada, yada, I ended up agreeing.
So I had the words made up in a PowerPoint complete with funny pictures to add some pizazz.
My first lesson went less than wonderfully. The students weren't being respectful whatsoever, and I actually stopped instruction to remind them that this wasn't part of my job and that I was leading class to help them learn the words and that the least they could do is respect me by not talking. That kept them quiet for awhile and they actually got kind of into the lesson! We discussed words like 'humiliating' and 'gloated' and the students really enjoyed giving their examples and ideas about the words. However, I knew I had gotten a little hard on them when one of the students' "powerful" sentence for the word 'rage' was, "Ms. C felt rage when the class wouldn't stop talking while she was teaching." Whoops; but I guess it's good that they could see me get frustrated with their disrespect.
The substitute led the lesson in all the Pre-AP classes that I don't assist in, an he also led the class that has the worst behavior. I was trying to take a step back from leading and I figured he could handle it. It went okay, but the students were really out of hand.
Fast forward to last period. The sub insisted that I lead class again, and I begrudgingly acquiesced. It went great! In the middle of the words, a student raised his hand (instead of yelling out!!!!) and asked if I was their teacher now. I said no, that I was just leading class to help them stay on track. He and several others said, "Aw man, you should be our teacher now." Cue heartwarming happiness. Almost every student got all the words written down and shared at least one of their sentences with the whole class.
Also, one of the other subs that I've worked with was eating lunch in the teacher's lounge while I was in there and he told my current sub that he was lucky to have me in the classroom. He said I had a "real way" with the students. We were talking about what City Year is and my plans for after this year, and he said that he thinks I'll be an excellent teacher. It meant a lot coming from a 20-year retired teacher who had been working with special ed students for the last 40 years. He had some serious street cred.
I did miss working with just my students. I checked in with them and told them that we could play trashketball with the next set of words, and some were disappointed, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least they enjoy working with me!
Two students got moved off of my focus list because they're doing really well in their ELA work, which is exciting, but I'll miss them! One of them completed an entire, standardized-test style expository essay after going through all the steps with me (prewriting, revising/editing, the whole nine yards) and I was so proud of her!
AND one of my reluctant students (let's call him Harold), who loves to read graphic novels, took my book recommendation! I suggested Maus, a historic graphic novel that tells the story of the Holocaust with cats and mice as the an/protagonists. He loved it! My other focus list student even asked if he could please read it after Harold is done. Cha-Ching!
Oh, and I accepted my offer from Teach for America to teach Government and Economics in the Greater Nashville area. So excited!!! Pat already got offered a job and a very successful charter school in the downtown area, so we will officially be moving to Tennessee this summer!
Sorry for the long post-- I guess I should post more often! :)
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