Tonight's Poet Corner: Introspection
Well, I did it. I made it. My very first week of officially student teaching has been completed.
It was not a walk in the park, nor was it overly challenging. After all, it's only the beginning of the semester. But I know it will get crazier from here. Classes restart at Sonoma State in two weeks, which means that my workload will increase like crazy. I have units to plan (one I hope will be quite fun, as it's focused on science fiction), homework to assign, and students to convince of my ability to teach. I have also observed two advanced placement courses and let me tell you, it's amazing what these young teenagers can do and say.
As a teacher, I am beginning to realize just how limited I am in the scope of things I can provide and teach the students, as well as the amount of time I can do it in. For example, one of my culminating projects for a unit that I drew up for one of my classes is a play or movie script. I would love to take a whole semester working on drama and cinema, but as it's a literature class, I am expected to expose them to much more - more books, more essays, more multimedia. That's obviously part of my job to expose my students to lots of fiction and nonfiction and speech and writing techniques, and that's good, don't get me wrong; however, not being to focus so heavily on one facet of English or the other is a bit disappointing because I think the students could learn a lot and experience a lot of positive things from it. Maybe I'm too optimistic regarding the apparent enthusiasm of the teenagers at my high school, but hey, my energy's worth something, right?
I am really excited for what is to come, and also very nervous and overwhelmed. This semester is the real deal. Last semester was just child's play compared to the amount of responsibility and work that's approaching. Added with my private school teaching job, I am continuing to work six days a week, approximately twelve hours on five of those days. I enjoy each and every minute of what I do, but I sincerely hope that the creativity of my students, the support of my mentor teachers, the kindness of my friends and coworkers, the patience of my family, and the unconditional love of my fiancée are enough to get me through this semester (while I'm also planning my wedding, as a reminder!).
On an unrelated note right now, as I write this, I have been reading stories by Harlan Ellison and unfortunately pushed myself into a bizarre, mostly creeped out state of mind - which does nothing to alleviate any of my stress or overthinking in terms of all the other things happening in my life. So I'm going to try to wash out my brain with some light-hearted comedy videos on Youtube before I go to bed.
Have a great night and a great weekend, everyone.
It was not a walk in the park, nor was it overly challenging. After all, it's only the beginning of the semester. But I know it will get crazier from here. Classes restart at Sonoma State in two weeks, which means that my workload will increase like crazy. I have units to plan (one I hope will be quite fun, as it's focused on science fiction), homework to assign, and students to convince of my ability to teach. I have also observed two advanced placement courses and let me tell you, it's amazing what these young teenagers can do and say.
As a teacher, I am beginning to realize just how limited I am in the scope of things I can provide and teach the students, as well as the amount of time I can do it in. For example, one of my culminating projects for a unit that I drew up for one of my classes is a play or movie script. I would love to take a whole semester working on drama and cinema, but as it's a literature class, I am expected to expose them to much more - more books, more essays, more multimedia. That's obviously part of my job to expose my students to lots of fiction and nonfiction and speech and writing techniques, and that's good, don't get me wrong; however, not being to focus so heavily on one facet of English or the other is a bit disappointing because I think the students could learn a lot and experience a lot of positive things from it. Maybe I'm too optimistic regarding the apparent enthusiasm of the teenagers at my high school, but hey, my energy's worth something, right?
I am really excited for what is to come, and also very nervous and overwhelmed. This semester is the real deal. Last semester was just child's play compared to the amount of responsibility and work that's approaching. Added with my private school teaching job, I am continuing to work six days a week, approximately twelve hours on five of those days. I enjoy each and every minute of what I do, but I sincerely hope that the creativity of my students, the support of my mentor teachers, the kindness of my friends and coworkers, the patience of my family, and the unconditional love of my fiancée are enough to get me through this semester (while I'm also planning my wedding, as a reminder!).
On an unrelated note right now, as I write this, I have been reading stories by Harlan Ellison and unfortunately pushed myself into a bizarre, mostly creeped out state of mind - which does nothing to alleviate any of my stress or overthinking in terms of all the other things happening in my life. So I'm going to try to wash out my brain with some light-hearted comedy videos on Youtube before I go to bed.
Have a great night and a great weekend, everyone.
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