I'm back!!

Hello again!  After a really long absence, I'm busting open the blog once again!  I haven't been posting because I've been on summer break, getting through my first semester of my senior year, etc etc.  But as I was filling out my application to student teach, I realized that I'm going to have more teacher education stuff to post about soon!  So I thought I'd start with a little overview of what my next semester of student teaching (like, the real deal student teaching; not just a field experience!).

As you may or may not know, I go to school in a small town in Ohio, and always assumed that I'd be doing my student teaching in one of the schools around here.  But then I got a phone call from the man in charge of student teaching placements, asking me to please consider a different student teaching program they offer here at the university.  And long story short, after a lot of debate, I will be student teaching in (drumroll please)...

Florida!  I'll be teaching in the town that Disney built, and I couldn't be more excited!  I'm still doing paperwork and figuring out logistics so nothing is set in stone (other than the fact that I'm going!), but I'm in the process of making it happen!

I'll update with information as I have it, although as of now all I know is the town name and whose couch I'm crashing on as school before I leave for Florida.  But hey, it's a start!

I can't believe it's over!

Yesterday marked my last day in my junior field experience, and it was definitely bittersweet.  All 3 periods had a party/chill day; they were allowed to bring in food and we watched the last two episodes of an online Spanish-speaking drama/educational video (Mi Vida Loca.  Look it, up it's fantastic!).  My co-op was using it as a party for me, and I have to say, I loved having a party thrown for me!  Even second period, the ones who seemed to like me the least as a class, got into it and brought in food.

First period really started the day off right, though.  When I arrived, my co-op and a few students were blowing up balloons.  I was then promptly kicked out of the room because one of the boys (Alejandro, you may remember him as the lotion boy from On a lighter note...) wanted it to be a surprise.  So I wandered off to the copy room/faculty room with strict orders not to come back until the bell.  After about 10 minutes of studying for an exam, the warning bell rang.  I figured that I should head back, but I didn't immediately walk in because I knew it was really important to them that I didn't walk in early.  So while I waited for the second bell one of my other boys, Nicolás, walked to the classroom.

First thing out of his mouth was a laugh and, "so did they kick you out of the room?"

I nodded as he walked in, before adding "find out if I can come in yet!"

After a few seconds he came back out and confirmed that I wasn't supposed to come in yet.  I could hear Alejandro directing people before I saw the door be pulled shut and the lights turned out.  He then opened the door, walked out, and said "Oh hello Señorita, are you here to teach us something today?"

I chuckled and played along, saying that yes I was there to teach them.  And when I walked in the whole class yelled sorpresa!, and two other boys jumped out from either side of the door (which really did startle me).  The had hung balloons on the chalkboard, there were streamers, and the whole back table had food. It was great!

I was really sad to see my time there come to the end.  I got lots of hugs and students making me promise to come visit, and my co-op got me a really great little bucket with Vitamin Water (to get me through finals), colored permanent markers (which I love), and a thank you card.

I'm so grateful that I got the opportunity to spend my semester at this high school with these people; as crazy as the students made me I'll really miss seeing them every day and my co-op was a huge asset.  I know that because of them I'll go far!

Want a nugget?

Today, I learned a new activity students do to make each other crazy; it seems as though "pantsing" and knocking a kid's books on the floor have been left behind for good.

Before first period one of my students was talking about "nuggeting."  I must have looked confused because he asked me if I knew what it meant (that was a big negative, all my classmates used to do was tell people that their socks were untied...).  Of course then they started talking amongst themselves about how maybe they should give me a little introduction to nuggeting.

Once they got distracted, my co-op explained to me that nuggeting is when a student takes everything out of another student's backpack, turns it inside out, and then puts everything back in.  Obviously when the bell rings the student then comes back to grab their things only to find this "nugget" of a bookbag.  Since they can't just pick it up now that the straps are inside, they're stuck hulking this big clunky sack around school until they get a chance to turn it right side out.

Now I have to admit, I did chuckle a little; the mental picture was just too funny.  But I guess students got really fast at it and it became a huge problem at the school.  It was bad enough where a student could walk across the room, come back 30 seconds later and they'd have a nugget.

Like every high school fad, this one eventually died down.  But I can't help but wonder what the students will come up with by the time I have a classroom!

Down to the wire!

Since I'm getting to the end of the semester insanity, this one is going to be short and sweet!  I can't believe I only have a week left with my students...my co-op said today that it was bittersweet, but I have to say I'm seeing it as a little more bitter.  The students make me nuts and I whined a lot about making up lessons while doing other class work, but it really has been a blast!

That being said, I got to see "imitation is the highest form of flattery" acted out today in class.  Last week, my friend and I attempted a manicure where you paint your nails one color and then use straws to paint different colored circles on them (it's harder than it sounds...or maybe it's just as hard as it sounds, depending on your level of craftiness.  I'm at level -12 so it was tough for me).  But they ended up looking really cool, so I left them for school.  So today when I went to class, I noticed one of the girls who asked me about them had tried it!

Now, I know this is something very small, but I got really excited that she tried it after seeing me do it!  Hers looked about a million times better, but it was still awesome!

Oh hello there, spring break!

This week, I get one of those extra perks of being an education student: my students' spring break.  I already had my university's spring break a couple weeks ago, and now the high school I'm teaching at has theirs.  Now, while this doesn't mean I have the whole week off (I still have those pesky college courses), it does mean that I get a whole week of being able to sleep until it's actually light outside!  For example, today I got to sleep until 9 am, which is a whole 4 extra hours of shut eye!

So all this being said, any posts for the next few days will be a little different, i.e. probably having nothing to do with teaching at all.  However, I did make this blog with the intention of having a college student's point of view, so it still works!

What do you mean there's no water?!

Since between classes and teaching this semester is absolute madness, it's the simple things that really make a difference: getting a chance to paint my nails, a movie night with friends, my favorite food in the dining hall to name a few.  But there's one that should have been at the top of the list: a hot shower.  You see, a hot shower is one of those things that I always enjoyed, but never realized how much I loved them until they were unceremoniously stolen from me.

It all started Sunday, when my roommate left to shower, only to come back 30 seconds later and inform me that I might want to reevaluate whether or not I needed a shower since there was no hot water.  I was going to hear a band at a restaurant later, so I decided that I could suck it up and take a cold shower for a day.  After the coldest (and fastest) shower ever, I hoped it would never happen again and put the incident out of my mind.

The next day, I got in the shower to discover that the water was taking a ridiculously long time to warm up.  After 5 minutes of standing there and waiting for the water to go past barely tepid to some semblance of warm, I realized that that was as hot as my water was planning to get.  After another short shower (and a whole lot of angry cursing) I discovered that almost lukewarm showers are significantly worse than ice cold ones, which is not something you'd expect.  But trust me, they are.

On to yesterday morning, which was Tuesday.  I got up for teaching as usual at 5:15 to go shower, crossing my fingers and praying that I'd be able to take a hot shower.  But alas, still ice cold.  It seems even lukewarm was too much of a trial for the water heater at this point.  I then stomped back to my room, announced to my roommate that there was no point in showering (she and I get up to teach at the same time, I swear I'm not a bad roommate who wakes up the other at 5 in the morning) and that she might as well not get up.  This just showed my frustration, since I'm one of those people who hates going to breakfast on the weekend without showering, let alone teaching.

Finally last night I'd had enough.  For the 3rd time I bugged my RA with no luck (she had about as much information as I did, which was practically nothing).  But later, around 10:30, she knocked on the door and asked if I had planned to shower that night, to which I said "no, usually the morning."

"Okay good, because there's no water in the showers and I don't know when we're getting it back."

My annoyance peaked at that moment.  I very politely asked her if she had any clue if it was something that'd be fixed by morning, or if I should go find somewhere else to shower because so help me God I was not going another day without a shower.  As you probably guessed, I ended up calling friends in another dorm and asking to stash my things in their room while I showered in their building.

And to end this ridiculously long and tedious story, I tell you that it is now 12:43 pm on Wednesday, and there's still no hot water.

 We do, however, at least have actual water now which I guess is a step in the right direction...


EDIT: It is now 4:25 pm on Wednesday and I've been informed that the water is back to working the way it should.  Step 1: Fix water - check.  Step 2: Make sure it stays working - fingers crossed.

Music to my ears!

I started my unit yesterday, which means that for the next two weeks of school (thank goodness I get their spring break as a breather in between) I'm teaching the first three periods of the day, every day, with lessons and a unit I planned.  I love it, but it is a little stressful since I feel like I'm not putting as much into the planning and execution as I should be (thank you whoever decided a full class load and this field experience was a good idea).  I'm always wondering if I timed things correctly, if I planned enough, and second guessing my activities.

But today, while they were playing Memory with new vocab, I got to hear one of a teacher's favorite phrases out of a student: "I'm learning so much!"

Now I have to say, that my pessimistic side reared it's ugly head when I first heard it (since he'd said it rather loudly when I was on the other side of the room, which generally indicates sarcasm.  Especially out of this boy).  So I walked over and joked, "Oh, I hope you weren't being sarcastic!"  to which he responded, "No I mean it!"  He then went on to explain to me that every time he didn't know a word he had to look it up on his list, and that made him remember it.

"See, I didn't know festejar, so I looked it up, and now I know it means to celebrate!"

Of course he forgot the meaning of the word 15 minutes later when he read it in the textbook, but I'll still take it!  Baby steps people, baby steps....

It's St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Due to the fact that I am still in college, I get to make observations and opinions based not just on teaching, but on college life too!  And what I learned today is that you can tell some students' priorities just based on the way they react to holidays.

For example, we take today, St. Patrick's Day.  A holiday that is commonly associated with drinking a lot.  So it's a no brainer that it'd be a big deal on college campuses, right?

Correct.  I always notice that whenever there's a holiday, a cause (wear red for drug free week for example), or anything else where everyone is encouraged to wear the same color on a certain day, there's always about half the population that participates while the other does not.  But this morning while eating in the dining hall, I saw a total of maybe 5 people who didn't have green on.  Even people who you could tell rolled out of bed and went to breakfast already had their green on or were insisting to friends that the green lettering on their shirt of a different color totally counts.  This is one of those days where almost anyone will call someone else out on not wearing the approved color, regardless of whether they know each other or not!

What I got out of this whole scenario is that it just goes to show, theme a day around drinking and you'll get twice as much college student participation!

(Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to prove or state that all college students to is get drunk and party; I myself am on a dry campus and have friends that don't drink or rarely go out.  I'm just poking fun at the situation, I promise!)

And on a lighter note...

My students are taking graduation tests, meaning for the first 2 hours they're sitting in exam classrooms and then the school moves on to a schedule as if they'd had a 2 hour delay (classes are shortened to 30 minutes all week).  I was bummed because this meant I could only see my first period class.  We (my friend and I are placed at the same school) had the option of going later but we have class so I had to stick to my regular, 7:30 to 10:30 field schedule.

They were working on a word puzzle activity, so I was going around the room, helping out students who were struggling, answering questions, etc, when one of my more chatty students (who chose Alejandro as his Spanish name) called me over.

"Señorita, I have to ask you a question but you have to promise your opinion of me won't change."

I was automatically suspicious, because these are teenage boys and he had a little smile on his face.  I never know what they're going to say anyway, and Alejandro especially always has something creative or off the wall to contribute.

So I cautiously agreed and asked what was up.  He very seriously looked at me and said, "do you have any hand lotion?"

I couldn't help the smile (although I did, thank goodness, hold in the surprised chuckle) and sadly informed him that I didn't.  He of course couldn't believe that I, a female, didn't have any lotion on me.

Just the fact that he got so serious about this made sitting through two hours of testing worth it, and I made sure to put a bottle in my bag for tomorrow when I got back to the dorm...just in case...

My five minute soap box

I'm going to use this post to have an I'm an Idealistic College Student and This Is How I Think These Things Should Be moment.

One of the assignments I have in connection to this field experience is to interview two of my students.  We weren't given questions, only the very broad guideline that it should be 10-15 minutes long and that we'd have to write a reflection on it.  I gave fairly basic questions, but the answers I got were anything but simple.

Two of my questions involved the students' opinions about the school: "Do you feel that your teachers care about/support you?"  and "If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be?"  And these questions led to comments indicating that many teachers these students have play favorites, don't seem to care about the education of their students (isn't that kind of the point??), blow students off, yell past the point of being constructive, and don't fairly enforce school rules.

One student's response was that she'd change the disciplinary system.  When I asked her to explain, she said that students tend to get away with big things (like being caught with drugs and being punished with a day of suspension) and little things being blown out of proportion.  She also alluded to the fact that students with money tend to have their disciplinary problems go away a lot more easily.  This is ridiculous to me; what are we teaching these students?  Basically that being responsible for your actions is something of the past, and that if you have a little money or are buddies with administration then consequences don't matter.

The other student named the way some teachers treat students as his change.  He told me that he hates his English class, not because of the content, but because the teacher doesn't seem to care and likes to yell and "get in students' faces" all the time.  He told me that he's had teachers tell him they were too busy or didn't have time to help him when he asked a question.  He then told me that his Spanish teacher (my mentor teacher) would stop grading or whatever she was doing to just have conversations with him in Spanish after school if he asked, and he spoke about this like it was the most monumental and amazing thing in the world.

This made me so sad.  A teacher taking time to talk to a student or answer a question should be the norn, not the exception.  I know that sometimes grading or meetings take priority, but the students should never feel like they are being blown off or ignored.  To me that's one of the main principles of teaching: investing our time in the education and betterment of our students.

And this is a good school.  Excellent ratings over the last several years, not hurting for money, with a very good variety of classes and extracurricular activities for the students.  Which makes me wonder how schools that aren't as well off are faring?

The tough stuff

Today, I read about a school shooting that took place in Chardon, Ohio.  Apparently (I apologize if my information is off, the articles are constantly being updated) someone who I'm assuming was a student stood up in the cafeteria and started shooting.  When I saw the reports this morning, 5 students had been injured, but as of now two have passed away as a result.  And to make it even more real, one of my friends at school is from that area; her brother is a senior at the affected school (he's alright by the way).

This is the type of situation that no one can prepare you for.  I read that two teachers chased the gunman out of the school, and I have no doubts that their reactions prevented more injuries/casualties.  I don't know what the other faculty did, but I'm sure each member of that school community tried to do what they could, whether it was keeping students safe in lock down or evacuating them to a nearby elementary school.

No matter what events have happened in the past, no one is ready to deal with a school shooting when it happens.  And even if the situation is dissolved with as little physical damage is possible, there's still the emotional scars that are left behind.  This is one of those events that scares me not only because it can happen anywhere, but because it's something that you can't predict no matter what you read, learn, or study in school.

I'm not saying that I'm afraid to teach because of what might happen; that's life.  But I can't help but wonder what could have happened to set this person off?

I honestly don't know who reads this blog, but I'm asking that anyone who does keep this community in your thoughts and prayers.

Review woes

Since my students have a chapter test next week, they started review today after their quiz.  And, because we're always trying to keep things interesting, we had them playing charades with the vocabulary words.  And, as expected, a few got into it and most wanted nothing to do with it (heaven forbid, they might look silly in from of their peers).

I was surprised, however, to see how many teenage girls were willing to lay on a dirty classroom floor once they were dragged to the front of the room in order to portray the word for "sunbathing."  They were some the funniest because the motivation (total embarrassment and uncoolness) for not acting out the word at all became the motivation for doing the most accurate charade they could so that someone would guess more quickly, thus ending their uncoolness.

But there still were those who refused to participate.  They got up to the front of the room, whined, and said they didn't know what to do, thinking that would get them out of the game.  You can imagine their disappointment when they discovered they had to stand up there pouting until they participated.

All in all once they got into it (and discovered that we only had time for about 5 minutes) it ended up being good for them, and they were even spitting out words they learned the previous year which is always a good thing.

And the slacker award goes to...

Once again, I find myself apologizing for not posting in a while.  I'm torn between thinking that my schedule is really that hectic, or thinking that my time management needs tweaking.  Since this is a crazy semester for me, I'm going to say the former even though I'm sure it's a combination of the two.

Moving along, today is my first official day off from teaching!  It's Presidents' Day which means the High School is off today (us college kids didn't come out so well since we still had classes, but luckily I came out on the good side and didn't have any other classes today).  So although I most definitely can't use today to do nothing but catch up on napping and Youtube videos, it's infinitely better because the alarm wasn't going off at 5am.

I sincerely hope my students used their long weekend to sleep and blow off steam, however.  I don't know if I was oversensitive, stressed, or what when I taught on Friday, but a lot of the students were in fine form by way of giving the student teacher a hard time.  I had one try to tell me how to teach, another making a snide remark about my being a magician when I erased the SMARTBoard, and the rest either wanted to just sit and stare at me or not stop chatting for five seconds.  One little Judy Attitudy, upon my asking why he wasn't writing, told me that he didn't need to take notes; he memorized them.

I also gave them their grades on presentations I had them do.  They were out of 12 points, and if they followed my directions (they each had to say 3 commands for example), it would have been simple to get full credit.  I didn't even make them memorize it, all they had to do was read their papers (which I had given them time to work on the day before they presented).  And boy were they upset.  But the odd thing was, the students I expected to get mad (the ones who got 8 or less) didn't say anything and those who got 10 or 11 out of 12 were on me like rockets, demanding to know why they got points off.

And they were incredibly rude about it.

There were no, "can I ask you about my grade?" or "I don't understand why..."Nothing like that.  I was prepared after first period for the reactions but that first class took me by surprise.  One boy was so outraged that he stomped out of the room ripping up his rubric (he was also one of the boys who refused to work when I gave them the opportunity, blew off the presentation, and received the grade he had earned).  But my co-op did tell me later that grades like these are tough and the students almost always react this way, justified or not.  She also reminded me that these are the types of situations that I have to just roll off my back, since many students are still under the impression that doing little or no work should still warrant an A.

I'm hoping that, like me, the students just needed a day to breathe.  And maybe this means that they're more comfortable around me, since they're willing to come up to me now for pretty much anything instead of just wondering who I am and why I'm there every day.  Either way, I hope I figure it out soon...

They're having a substitute on Friday, and I'm teaching.

Short blog is short.

I'm soo sorry I haven't posted in a while, these two weeks are pretty much my busiest so far.  So instead of a big post about my lesson today (fantastic) or the Valentine's Day activity they did (also fantastic, will come at a later date), I'm just going to pose a question.

I have a methods night class once a week, the theory equivalent to the methods class I took last year.  Is it wrong that I leave there frustrated and questioning what I'm being taught?  I mean, a seasoned professional with a whole lot of experience and research to back it up is teaching us, shouldn't I be tripping over myself to try and learn everything I can instead of wondering about the legitimacy of the data?

Don't breathe on me!!

Everyone is sick.  A good chunk of my friends at school are living off of soup and coughing everywhere, and today 99 students were absent from the high school.  My co-op told me that's about an eighth of student body that is either out sick or enjoying an impromptu three day weekend.

I find myself using hand sanitizer like I'm being paid and keeping everyone at arms length (literally), because I know getting sick would be one of the worst things to happen during this semester.  There's so much going on that I just can't afford to lose any time sleeping afternoons away and working at half speed.

So here's to antibacterial soap, vitamin C, and hoping I stay healthy until Spring Break!

What they don't tell you in teacher school

So today in first period we had a really strong gas smell.  Not headache causing craziness, just enough to cause confusion.  The whole language wing of the school smelled like a broken Bunsen burner.  We kept teaching, but another teacher came in and asked if we smelled it too, while a student who showed up late mentioned that they were talking about it in the office.  It was enough where I half expected the school to send us outside, but they never did.  Later I found out that it was just our section of the school; a girl I know who also is doing her field there said they couldn't smell anything.  So we just opened the windows and moved on (after figuring out if it helped more to keep the door open or shut.  Turns out it didn't really matter).

It wasn't too bad though, other than the obvious annoyance of the smell.  Jokes were cracked and the kids seemed in good spirits.

The calm lasted about 10 minutes.

Then the whining started, along with the complaints of headaches, not being able to stand it anymore, and, my personal favorite, the Oh My Gosh If We Don't Get Out Of Here We're All Going To Die.  These were funny for about 3 seconds, but they got old really quickly.  It really wasn't that bad.  I wanted to tell the little sweethearts that no, you're not going to die, if you were we'd probably have left already.  But we just shushed them and moved on with our activity, which included some partner competition which magically seemed to make the headaches go away.

Since it wasn't a huge crisis, it wasn't terrible and it was a good experience to have.  However, I started wondering about what I would have done had I been there alone, along with thinking about all the other possible situations no one prepares you for.  My co-op contributed some stories of her own, so at least if I get a situation about highlighter attacks or tampon throwing (I kid you not), I'll know how someone else handled it.

But still, I'm a little anxious to see what they throw at me in the future...

Awesomeness

After 2 weeks in my school, I've decided that I got so lucky with my cooperating teacher.  She basically told me that for my first lesson I could have free reign and do whatever I want (obviously she gave me the vocab and the timeline of the next week).  Not only that, but she's told me on numerous occasions that she'd love to hear any ideas I have for anything she's doing or that might come up.  She also sends me back to school with new papers, copies of quizes/activities/tests, booklets, catalogues for supplies, mad-libs books, and readers (which was today's little gift, scholastic readers in Spanish that read like regular magazines) that I could use in the future.  She's just so willing to share everything she has with me along with asking me for ideas, which makes it feel more like collaborative relationship as opposed to  teacher/college kid.

I also love my classes.  The students are so unique it's insane.  Their interests are all over the map, and so are their styles, but they all seem to get along.  Sure there are little groups, but no one seems to hate or not be able to tolerate anyone else.  One girl, who I've taken to calling 80's Girl, always has big hair (dyed pink and blue at the ends), intense make up, and really awesome outfits right out of a Brat Pack movie.  She appears like she'd be really intimidating, sort of rough around the edges.  Yet the two she hangs out with before and during class are the nerdy boy who has a backpack the size of his body and a girl who I know participates in a lot of school sports.  And they're not the only cases like that, either.  All three sections have cool, mixed groups like this.

Hopefully the whole school is like this, not just the parts I see!

Who needs a secret language?

So on Wednesday I finally started my junior field experience at a not so local high school (it's almost a 40 minute drive, which is super fun at 6 in the morning...), and I love it!  I see 3 Spanish II classes while I'm there, and while seeing the same lesson taught three times in a row isn't exactly fun, it's really going to give me the chance to compare the dynamics, students, and different working styles during the classes.  Even though I've only been there for a few days I'm already seeing how different the sets of students really are.

But that's not the reason I wanted to post.  I just wanted to share a quick little story about being bilingual reason number 472 why it's awesome to know another language.

My co-op (cooperating teacher, or mentor teacher) came up to me yesterday while the students were working in pairs to make signs for the upcoming market day and started speaking to me in Spanish.  I was a little confused since we always had spoken in English, but I went with it since I grab any chance I can to practice.  But then I realized why she did.  She was pointing out a pair of students to me and was making one of those "they're so going to get married when they're older" comments (which I completely agree with by the way, you could see it just by watching them interact for a couple minutes).  It's not like she hid it because she was saying anything bad, it was just not one of those things that you generally talk about within earshot of students.

And then I realized just how cool that moment really was.  Instead of having to stand in the corner and whisper or waiting until after class, we got to make our "aw how cute!" comments and move on all while keeping an eye on the students and talking at a normal volume.  There's so much freedom!

Now that's not to say that I think foreign language teachers (or anyone who speaks another language for that matter) should use their knowledge to talk about others while they're in the room.  But there are so many times this could be useful for teachers, from discussing tests to disaster drills; anything that would normally be kept to hushed discussions in the back of the room, emails, and those phone calls that are taken in the hallway behind the closed door (which we've all seen a teacher do at least once in our school careers).  The way I see it, you can still keep an eye on your class while taking less time to pass along semi-private information.  Sure you still get the nosy student questions like, "what did you talk about?" or "what's going on??" but when do those ever actually go away?

Who knows, maybe I'm just getting really excited over something little and seeing a big exciting revelation in a 30 second conversation.  Or maybe I just found another response to use when someone looks at me and says, "I just don't get the point of trying to learn a second language."

 And yes, I do get that comment.  Way more frequently than I would like to.