AuburnChick's Adventures

First of all, let’s all do the Happy Dance.

Yes, Friday has finally arrived (or it might just be Saturday before I finish typing this post).

I just finished Week 4 of my first year of teaching, and all I have to say is WOW!

After last weekend’s Christian Concert Series, I did not hold out much hope for this week.

I mean…I scarcely had time to organize my lesson plans, so I had no idea what the week would be like.

Fortunately, I did have first and second periods set, as I had spent a couple of hours on Sunday working out the how’s and what’s for those classes.

I’m sure my students wish I had not come down from the natural high I had been on from worshiping God in music.

Monday morning arrived, and I met the day head-on, armed with vocabulary packets, blogging procedures, and a host of other handouts.

Apparently, Mrs. AuburnChick had borrowed the shoemaker’s elves and produced fine works of art during the middle of the night.

My students were not amused.

I’ll just summarize by saying that everyone survived the week, even though one of my classes was shocked silly by my vocabulary test which, by the way, was not “matching” or “fill-in-the-blank” nor will it ever be.

Oh yeah.  Can you say SAT words and h-a-r-d?

Several failed the first test.  I will be allowing next week’s test scores to replace this week’s…a one time deal and an act of mercy.

I’m tough.

That’s why they pay me the not-so-big-bucks.

My students learned that I have set the bar high.  It was a tough but necessary lesson.

But, my students weren’t the only ones who learned important lessons this week.

I learned that there are many things people don’t tell you about teaching.

You have to be firm but flexible, wiling to allow unexpected teachable moments to interrupt carefully-prepared-for lesson plans.  The best teachers recognize and take advantage of these.

I learned that it is okay to scrap a lesson plan if I see it as being way beyond the scope of what my students can handle.  Sure, it might mean eating crow, apologizing to the kids for throwing Romeo and Juliet out at them when all they can handle is Bambi.

The willingness to recognize a bad decision and go back to the drawing board speaks volumes.

I have learned that being a good teacher is about being consistent and reliable.  This week, I witnessed, firsthand, kids who act like angels in my classroom going all daffy in another.  Where is the consistency?  Well, it’s in my classroom as well as my friend, Jane’s.  The kids know that we’re there when the bell rings, and they are expected to act in a certain manner once they enter.  Life runs much smoother that way.

One thing that I didn’t have to learn but the point was driven in was that student-teacher relationships are very important.

One of my ninth grade students is struggling right now.  My expectations are high, and I know this class is comprised of extremely intelligent young people (in fact, every single one of my students are bright).  After class ended, she told me that every day, she goes home with a “thinking headache.”

I had to laugh.

I told her that she should try teaching five classes and spending 14 hours a day working.  Talk about a thinking headache!

But then, before she left, she told me, in a quiet voice, “I didn’t want to say this in front of anyone, but I love you.”

Be-still my beating heart.

This gal and I had bonded the first day we met.

She’s a sweetie, even I do fry her brain every day.

But she forgives me for making her think.

Because she loves me, and she knows I love her in return.

And because she knows I have her best interest at heart.

How many people go into teaching because they think of it as a career?

These are the people who burn out quickly or who turn into power-seeking tyrants whose kingdoms consist of their classroom’s four walls.

Where is the relationship?  Where is the natural affection?

Many students do not flourish in such an environment.

Remember my classroom motto?

Bloom where you are planted.

Week 4 of teaching is still too early to see any flowers cropping up.

I do see green shoots of life pushing through the earth, though.

Week 4 of teaching…everything I’ve ever hoped for and more than I ever dreamed could happen.

Just like my students, my green shoots are starting to poke through as well.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: teaching |