The Malicious Monocle

   The little rotters have gone and given me some sort of bug. I’ve spent the weekend with a sore throat and feeling like crap. I don’t want to call in sick, because there are a limited number of times I can do that while student teaching. I’d much rather plow on and try do everything I can.

However, I am going to ask my co-op to take over the teaching tomorrow. I’ll spend the day finishing writing the test for Thursday and working on stuff for next week. If he won’t teach, then I’m going to probably kill my throat trying to be heard over their talking.

  Today had all of the makings of an awesome day. There was a high chance of a snow day and I’d ended up watching the BBC feed on the primary results rather late. No snow day. To be fair, the roads weren’t looking all that bad this morning, but everyone knew the bad weather was still coming. By 10 this morning it was clear that the weather was going to be really bad by the end of the school day. Maybe we would be given a half-day? Nope.

The snow came and it came down really hard. It came and it came and it came. The windows of the classroom were almost completely covered by the blowing snow. School started without about half the students absent. About half of those left over the course of the day as well as parents came and picked them up. Then it took me over a half an hour to dig my car out of the parking lot which hadn’t been plowed at all during the day. Well, except for during the last period when some students were taken outside to shovel and clear off cars. Unfortunately it didn’t look like they did the lot I was parked in.

Sitting at home wasn’t on my list of things to do tonight, but that’s exactly what I’ve done. Well, except for the time I’ve spent outside digging my car out of the driveway where it was stuck when I got home and then clearing the driveway as well. With the shoveling I haven’t even managed to get any work done on my lesson plans. There’s still a couple of hours though, so I may yet get somewhere.

Grr. I hope tomorrow goes better than today did.

One kind of nice thing. I found out the science teacher in my house is married to a guy I kind of knew back in High School. He’s a professional artist now. I’m always seeing a painting of his at my favorite coffee shop. I wonder if he recalls who I am.

   Today was my first observation as a student teacher. It went rather well. My university supervisor sat in on the second class of the day. It isn’t one of the classes I’ve started teaching, but I do participate in the teaching of the class and help out where I can. The form she filled out for my file looked good. It was all upbeat. Her big concern really seemed more about if I looked comfortable. If by this point I still wasn’t very comfortable in the class,  I think she might have taken me aside to have a good talk.

I’m working away at my lesson plans and it looks as though I will be taking the classes over completely by about Wednesday next week at the latest. I have most of what I will be teaching planned out, but I need to make it fit into a RIO lesson plan for when my supervisor comes to observe. I need at least three of them set up, but may have to do a fourth at this time. My first formal observation is set for Monday the 18th of February, so whether I will be able to use one of my base three RIOs for her observation will hinge on when exactly I take the classes over.

I still haven’t heard anything from the principal about if I will be allowed to take over the gaming club at the school. I’m trying to decide if I should email him on my own or have a couple of the students go plead their case.

It looks as though we will have another snow day tomorrow. I’ve been watching the BBC News covering the American Primary races tonight while drinking a pot of coffee. If there isn’t a snow day tomorrow, I will be a sleepy social studies panda.

Another video.

I’ve seen pictures and video of one of the other events this group did. This one is just awesome in its simplicity and execution. I wish I could join in with some of their events.

That’s a real 3-D hologram in Tokyo Bay.

The seminar class I have this semester is requiring us to write a poem about student teaching. I could have gotten away with a simple Haiku, but that would have felt like cheating. So, instead I wrote a more full-length poem. I’m posting it here because it’s a pretty good one and it’s probably the first actual poem I’ve written in a decade or more. I gave up on poetry as a means to expression a long, long time ago.

Well, here it is:

Ode to Student Teaching

The sleeper awakens

(Grecian Urns can go to hell)

 

 

The electronic warble of the alarm wanders

It wanders about the room poking and probing

Probing for an undisturbed ear

Its only purpose in wandering to disturb

 

 

‘Neath the homemade quilt from grandma something is spied

Look!

A weak spot! A chink in the quilted armor

An elbow lays bare and uncovered

 

 

The warble waddles delicately along the arm

Turning ‘round the other way when the fingers are tipped

The shoulder is crested after finding a purchase in the wrinkled dermis

Peering into the quilted twilight an earlobe is sighted

 

 

Now begins the battle across the collar

No ring around here

Though a ring would make travel simpler than just the dermis

One final swing from the earlobe into the canal

 

 

The warble swings its pickaxe forged of decibels

The pickaxe shrieks as it arcs through the air

The now warbling shriek slips past the eardrum

It now bores and digs until the brain is found

 

 

An arm flashes out from under grandma’s hand-made quilt

Stabbing downwards, the warble is silenced

Bleary eyes rise up to check the time

A grunt, a groan and the sleeper is awakened

 

 

This sleeper is not the base of the pillar

He is not the shadow of a mouse on the moon

He is a modern-day apprentice, a servant indentured

Lo! He is a Student Teacher!

 

 

The Journey through the Urban Wilderness

(Without Snake Plissken to guide me)

 

 

The student is running late

Too many stabs at the snooze

Too long checking e-mail

Too long in the shower

 

 

Running to the car

A quick detour to the front porch for the paper

A quick stop at Mc D’s for some tasty breakfast

A quick zip, zig and zag to the school

 

 

Entering the Lot

A lot slalom (not Salem’s Lot) begins

Left to miss the oblivious children

Right to miss the oblivious parents

 

 

Chunk Ka-Chunk

Chunk Ka-Chunk

Speed bumps go by

Exhaust system is probably gone by now too

 

 

The parking lot slalom ends

The final bus passed

The final distracted parent avoided

A snugly-fitting parking spot found

 

 

Bleary eyes blink blankly

Still far too early

Students trickle towards the doors

I hope it’s early enough to avoid curious students

 

 

The Moat is Crossed

(The castle is stormed)

 

 

Hand clenched ‘round my coffee cup

I plunge through the door

Will someone stop me?

Do I look old enough?

 

 

Formatia Trans Sicere Educatorum

 

 

Visitor’s log is filled in

A secretary hands me a visitor’s badge

Another secretary takes the visitor’s badge back

A visitor’s badge is for visitors and I’m no longer one of those

 

 

I’m given a key!

w00t!

That’s right, a key!

Suck it Whigs.

 

 

Heading to the classroom

The halls are empty and cavernous

I meet the other house teachers

They smile and offer encouragement

 

 

A few last minutes of peace fly away

The Bell shatters the silence

It’s electric warble more insistent than the one earlier

The halls are cavernous no longer

 

 

Students mill and stampede simultaneously

Combinations spin, doors open

Books grabbed, make-up and hair checked

Doors close, voices shriek

 

 

A line forms outside the classroom

Students peer at a new face

Turning to one another they seek news

Attentions quickly wander and weekends are discussed

 

 

The school day follows

Periods begin and end

Seats fill and empty

A day passes in a blur

 

 

Blurred days creep on

Slowly names are learned

Personalities encountered

Comfort found

 

 

The student teacher starts by watching

Just like the 100 hours of observations

I start with one class and then move to two

Soon my day entire is spent in the front of class

 

 

Perhaps I am a teacher

Viral campaigning is an interesting proposition.

So, here’s my contribution to the virus.

  Well, so far student teaching has been incredibly relaxing. Of course, that may be because we’ve ended up with two non-contiguous snow days this week. When we were in school, I did step up and teach a lesson using the teacher’s lesson plan and had it go pretty well. The only real problem I felt I had was in going too quickly for the kids. I really need to learn the proper pacing for these Middle School kids. I don’t have my lesson plans written yet, but they are pretty well planned out in my head. I’ve also managed to make a good start on my first power point. Their regular teacher uses an overhead, but I can’t stand them. I had to copy endless notes off of overheads when I was 13. I really don’t want to now use them myself.

For my snow days I’ve spent them being pretty productive. Perhaps not as productive as I could have spent them, but I didn’t totally slack off. Today I even managed to go out and meet up with a classmate for some coffee. That was pretty nice. It was only for about an hour and a half, but at least it meant I got out for a bit. She even bought me the coffee.

I also filed my income tax today. Education credits are fun!

Before going back to my power point slides, I’ll leave this: http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/01/ipod-plus-delca.html

It’s a link to an article that has copies of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution read aloud and available for free download.