Really, I don’t have time for the ones I have but I have time for another one?!?!?!? Actually, I really want to document my adventures as a school teacher. Although I’ve taken classes and studied, there is still so much to learn. So let’s begin. To catch up a little:
I started teaching summer school on June 15th. I’m teaching a pre-Algebra class for those students heading into Algebra 1 next year. Now these kids have all taken pre-Algebra already. Some did really poorly, that’s why they are here, but others did really well. The only possible reason they could be here was because their parents had nothing else to do with them during the day. This makes for a really tough situation though. I have students who have done this all before and those that are good at math are bored to tears. They are creating problems in class with talking and goofing off.
So on the first day I made the most common rookie mistake. I didn’t lay down any class rules. I let the kids come in and sit where they wanted to and didn’t establish any rules or boundaries or limits of acceptable behaviour, and I am paying the price for that every day. The only good thing I can say about that is it happened during summer school and I only had to live with the consequences for 4 weeks. If it had happened during a regular semester I would have had to live with it for an entire year. I’ve learned and the start of the fall semester will be very, very different.
The second problem is that I only got the curriculum about 1 hour before class started. I had no time to prepare any thing or get ready in any way for the class. I went in there with nothing. I was given the first chapter of the Algebra 1 book to cover and 4 weeks to do it. It was insane. I have been dragging my feet, letting them play games, come up with worksheets, it’s bad. I’ve tried to work out lesson plans to keep them busy during the 2 hours they are with me, but I always seem to fall short. They have spent a lot of time playing brain games on the computer.
So overall, this first teaching stint was not exactly my most stellar moment. I feel like I’ve done a fairly horrible job at classroom management and lesson planning. But, as I said, I’m glad it happened during summer school. Turns out this was a great idea, a fabulous testing ground. I’ve now seen some of the mistakes, I’m sure there are a whole lot more to make, but I feel more ready now.
There is one more week left. I’m going to plan out some serious lessons for the coming week, I’m tired of running out of things to do. I’m going to have everything laid out to the last minute. Hopefully that will make for a better week.