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.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
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....
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....
Saturday, March 17, 2012
It's St. Patrick's Day!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!
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!)
Monday, March 12, 2012
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...
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...
Sunday, March 11, 2012
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?
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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)