But just getting that email threw my mind into a whirlwind of ideas and tasks that I should be doing. I should order a thick and detailed (which just means $$$) teacher planner, figure out what kind of filing system I should be using, lesson plans (?!?!), and eight thousand other things that I've put on my Wunderlist. I need to come up with some sort of lesson on what it means to be in high school (I'll be teaching 9th grade world history), go over school expectations and procedures, go over my expectation and rules (which I'm pretty sure I will center about RESPECT), and do some kind of "get to know you" activity that doesn't suck. It has been 6 years since I've been in high school. I'm not going to pretend I know what is "cool" anymore. Also, there's only so much Kid President students can take in one day.
My absolute top concern is cell phones. Kids (and honestly everyone) are attached to their phones. They rarely leave their hands. I have this terrible fear of a student having a phone out while I'm teaching and when I ask them to put it away, they don't. Then I have to confiscate it and they refuse. If I leave it alone then I lose credibility and if I battle with the student then I've lost everything, too. It's so stupid because I know that I am capable of building community and relationships with my students based on mutual respect, but that doesn't mean that my students will always find my class and my lessons a priority over the latest gossip or personal drama. My first inclination would be to ask the student to step out until I can get the class going on an assignment and deal with it at that point. But is that even right?!
I'm afraid that my students won't take me seriously because I look like a student. Although I never had these issues substituting, I have been shown texts from when I was student teaching about students talking about me being attractive. Of course, being called attractive is not a bad thing, but when it comes to being taken seriously, you really have to look the part, act the part, and teach the part. Silly or not, I've seen this get to another teacher in the school. She dresses well, she's attractive, and she's young. Students respect her and get along well with her, but she does end up being part of sexual jokes around the school. It's just a fine line that makes me nervous teaching in a high school.
I don't even know where to start for lesson planning until my department chair responds to my email (It's been 24 hours already!!). I just want to start working on things! I only have 68 days, 10 hours, and two minutes.
Tomorrow I will hopefully have a ton of other things to worry about like insurance costs and such.
But for now, I'm just going to sit on my couch and watch HGTV while I save teacher memes to my computer.
[Yeah, and I want my students to keep their cell phones off whenever they're in my classroom, and I want to dress well and be attractive without my students noticing. Also, interactive and meaningful lesson plans falling into my lap would be nice.]
Yeah. Good luck with that...
Zilla
I'm worried about cell phones as well! I'm afraid that even in fifth grade they'll be too cool Instagramming my fashion faux pas to listen to my lessons.
ReplyDeleteYes! IG and Twitter and whatever else is "cool"... it all kind of freaks me out. And I'm not naive enough to think that they won't be on it.
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