Wondering if I've fallen behind? So am I. I've been out sick for a few days (thanks to a bout of bronchitis) and went back today. My voice is still pretty scratchy. I'm exhausted. But I'm slowly on the mend and would rather be at work than not.
Lessons I've learned: When you don't go in, someone else has to. The first day my supervisor covered my classes. The next two there were subs. When I wasn't there, I actually had to write out a lesson plan (I don't do that now as everything is incredibly fluid and new students come every day). I had no idea how those plans would be interpreted, presented, or understood by the students. It's a very weird feeling. The loss of control. The unknown. The fear of the students feeling like you've abandoned them. At a certain point, I just wanted to be back so I'd know how they were doing. After a few days, I felt like i couldn't continue on with a project that I was so uncertain about where the students were at. From the teachers and administrators perspective, the subs were great. The students? Hated the sub yesterday. Oh they couldn't stop talking about how mean she was. Awesome.
The first students I saw this morning walking by my door peeked in the window, saw I was back, and looked disappointed. I found out later that one of them thought I had quit. Then the day improved. Students were relieved to see me, concerned when they could hear in my voice that I was in fact sick, and maybe a little happy to see me. How can that not make your day?
I had quite a few new students added to my classes over the past few days. I had to catch them up today on how the class works. I was happy to see a few students that I worked with last week in the assembly from the Spanish class and I'm excited to have their willingness and enthusiasm. One was the student who thanked me in the hallway after. The other was the student who wanted to wear his costume all day and shouted "Viva la Quesadilla!" during the skit.
I was chatting with two of the boys in 6th period today and they asked if they could work on a skit or play. And make it good. Make it good they said! I told them if they were willing to put in the time and the work that we could totally do it. Then one asked if they could do Romeo and Juliet. It was hilarious. We talked about "ghettoizing" it. Having the families from the rival zip codes here in the city. They were so excited. Now to harness that energy.
The girl in my 6th period that's been acting out and seeking attention told me today that her mom is moving her to a high school in another district. She took that to mean that today was her last day and she could do whatever she wanted. That led to not just talking back, distracting other students who were trying to work, throwing marshmallows...yes I said THROWING marshmallows. I took her to the principals office at the end of the day as she was supposed to be on a contract with him. He asked her, "What are you going to do if things don't work out the way you think they will? What if it's not your last day?" If it's not, she's getting sent straight to SMARTS tomorrow. He told me I could have sent her straight there today when she first started acting out.
I'd like to not take any more sick days for a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment