ah....glorious day...
i don't even care that it's raining! i am off school today. i have taken care of a few key things that needed to be dealt with today. unfortunately, instead of doing schoolwork, so far i have only been working on a take-home test (basically) for my credential program. it's very long and not very fun.
i just had a really cool interaction, though. i was talking to a very old, close friend (old as in we go back very far) who teaches at a girls middle school in the east bay. we were chatting on gmail chat. just as soon as i got off that chat, i started talking with the man who i was sharing a table with at the cafe where i am doing my work today. for some reason it came up that i am a teacher and he has a daughter--oh, i was sneezing and he was commenting that maybe i was coming down with what everyone has which is an annoying cold, including his daughter and my students.
he asked what i taught and i asked what grade his daughter is in--6th grade. she attends the girls middle school where my friend teaches. he knew who my friend is, even. it was a very funny coincidence, especially as i think there are only 200 or so students there. he is the second person i've met who has a child or grandchild at that school.
it's especially funny because i was thinking the other day about how hard it is to be teaching classes of 28-34 students at a public middle school that is under so much pressure to show success on standardized tests. private schools don't deal with any of that crap, scuse the language. i love the kids but i wish that i saw half as many of them at any given time, and that all of us weren't under so much pressure. it's complicated...but there is definitely a part of me that could see teaching in a different environment in the future. i don't know--after all, i'm only 14 weeks into my teaching career. but i see things that i'm not sure go away, even with time as a teacher. anyways, the grandmother of a student there once suggested to me that i think about teaching at this private girls middle school, and i felt slightly offended because she is a tutor in my classroom and i felt like she was saying that i wasn't that well suited for my kids. i think that remains to be seen, but it's certainly an interesting idea. i would definitely consider a different type of teaching environment when my time with teach for america is over...even if that sounds horrible to say. i don't consider teaching a way of "saving" my students, and while i would like my teaching to be social justice work, i think that can apply to teaching in any environment.
anyways, it's just something interesting to think about. a private girls school would especially be interesting since i attended private school k-7 and a private women's college. i certainly come from an appropriate background.
well, i should get back to my work. i am going to enter my students' percentages on the standards for the quizzes that they just took into my tracking database--because they MUST master the standards for true success this year. (okay...i am a little bit facetious about that.) there are so many competing theories in education, it's pretty amazing.
i hope that you enjoy reading, as always. you have have noticed that i tend to write when i am slightly calm but also trying to work on something that i might not want to work on. have a great weekend and if you're in the bay, stay dry!
i just had a really cool interaction, though. i was talking to a very old, close friend (old as in we go back very far) who teaches at a girls middle school in the east bay. we were chatting on gmail chat. just as soon as i got off that chat, i started talking with the man who i was sharing a table with at the cafe where i am doing my work today. for some reason it came up that i am a teacher and he has a daughter--oh, i was sneezing and he was commenting that maybe i was coming down with what everyone has which is an annoying cold, including his daughter and my students.
he asked what i taught and i asked what grade his daughter is in--6th grade. she attends the girls middle school where my friend teaches. he knew who my friend is, even. it was a very funny coincidence, especially as i think there are only 200 or so students there. he is the second person i've met who has a child or grandchild at that school.
it's especially funny because i was thinking the other day about how hard it is to be teaching classes of 28-34 students at a public middle school that is under so much pressure to show success on standardized tests. private schools don't deal with any of that crap, scuse the language. i love the kids but i wish that i saw half as many of them at any given time, and that all of us weren't under so much pressure. it's complicated...but there is definitely a part of me that could see teaching in a different environment in the future. i don't know--after all, i'm only 14 weeks into my teaching career. but i see things that i'm not sure go away, even with time as a teacher. anyways, the grandmother of a student there once suggested to me that i think about teaching at this private girls middle school, and i felt slightly offended because she is a tutor in my classroom and i felt like she was saying that i wasn't that well suited for my kids. i think that remains to be seen, but it's certainly an interesting idea. i would definitely consider a different type of teaching environment when my time with teach for america is over...even if that sounds horrible to say. i don't consider teaching a way of "saving" my students, and while i would like my teaching to be social justice work, i think that can apply to teaching in any environment.
anyways, it's just something interesting to think about. a private girls school would especially be interesting since i attended private school k-7 and a private women's college. i certainly come from an appropriate background.
well, i should get back to my work. i am going to enter my students' percentages on the standards for the quizzes that they just took into my tracking database--because they MUST master the standards for true success this year. (okay...i am a little bit facetious about that.) there are so many competing theories in education, it's pretty amazing.
i hope that you enjoy reading, as always. you have have noticed that i tend to write when i am slightly calm but also trying to work on something that i might not want to work on. have a great weekend and if you're in the bay, stay dry!
posted by Allyson B. at
3:21 PM
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