The Life of a Student Teacher

I am kind of amazed that I have been doing this student teaching thing for almost a month and even more amazed that I only have 3 1/2 weeks left in the high school…aka it’s the halfway point of the halfway point!

Andrew and I have settled into a nice routine of leaving the house at 6:30 to drop him off at his middle school and then I charge to the high school to be there by 7am.  This works really really really well, as long as there is no deviation from the plan.  One deviation problem of late would be snow.  At 6:30 in the morning the roads are rarely plowed, and this week in particular we were living in a snow globe up here.  Sunday night as we were driving back from Provo after staying at my grandma’s all weekend while my mom was visiting!!!!, we discussed what we would do with our dream Snow Day on Monday because our usual 45 min drive was approaching 2 hours.  At first the billion accidents were slowing us down, but then it was the deep snow that was causing us to drive 20 mph.

I digressed.  Returning to deviations to the school routine.  Monday morning we got up and searched every news type website we could find that would tell us that our school district was closing school for the day or even having a late start.  No such luck.  We started off even a few minutes earlier than usual to ensure we would have enough time.  Naturally I get to school around 7:25am. Yup, almost an hour of driving where it usually takes between 20-25 minutes.

Then there was the time that Andrew decided to drop me off in the morning so he could have the car during the day.  Normally in the afternoon I leave school at 3 (when the teachers are dismissed at high school) to pick up Andrew at 3:20 (when the teachers are dismissed at middle school).  It takes almost exactly 20 minutes for me to go from my classroom to the front of Andrew’s school in the afternoon.  Because Andrew had the car and was going to pick me up, he left at 3:00.  Around 3:15 I walked out to the meeting spot to await my ride.  At 3:20 I get a call that he is a bit turned around and not exactly close.  Around 3:40 my ride arrives.  Did I mention that you only go on three roads the whole way and make two turns? I have no idea how he got lost, but it made for a good story and lots of laughs as we drove home and he still tried to go the wrong way.  He was SOOO tired!

Commuting isn’t really the highlight of my job description.  I am enjoying getting to know the students.  When I walk through the halls I normally get a high five from a guy or a shout that they will see me in class soon.  It is also really interesting to see the different dynamics of my classes.  My fifth period class WILL NOT TALK.  My seventh period class WON’T STOP TALKING.

Yesterday morning there was a boy in my sixth period class in the room at the beginning of  first period, so I asked him if he was in Yearbook. He said, “No, I’m in your class in the ‘Name of a particular student’ period.  You know, the guy that you keep telling to sit down and stop talking but he doesn’t shut up.”  Glad I am making an impression.  Or that my student is.  Apparently I’ve got a bit of work to do.  Actually we are working out a good system and it is getting better (aka I moved him away from his friend and I walk over to his computer and make sure he is on task often and I only let him get out of his seat a small number of times).

One of the other teacher’s son is in my class.  This teacher told me that his son told him that my class is really hard.  I am currently doing a web design unit that involves teaching the students some basic HTML and CSS code.  So yes, it is a bit hard.  And the students try and get out of it.  Yesterday one student asked me point blank: “Since some students are gone can we just sit here and do nothing.”

Another student asked why we had to do complicated web design instead of just using blogger or wix to make websites visually.  Before I had a chance to answer a couple of students broke into an argument about designing the complications of code vs. visual design.  After they fought it out among themselves (in which some students were defending my choice), the student asked me again.  I told him the purpose of the class was to learn HTML and CSS and if they wanted to use blogger or wix and they knew code, they would be able to personalize their websites more so they didn’t just look like a template.  That seemed to satisfy him enough to open the correct program.

Then there is another wonderful student who I walked over to and he was trying to figure out a particular coding concept.  There were a couple of students that were also struggling so I told him we would walk it through as a class. By the time I got to the front of the room he had closed his eyes and fallen asleep.  I taught the concept to those that were awake.  When he woke up a bit later I walked over and he told me the exact same thing he said before, at which point I told him he slept through the discussion of how to do that and he would have to ask a friend and look on the board.  He is a bit cocky and entitled, so hopefully he will learn to stay awake when his questions are being answered instead of expecting me to teach on his time.

One of the students in my class told me that he had taken a web design class from another teacher in the school.  He told me that I was a way better teacher than the other guy because I didn’t stand at the front of the room and lecture for an hour and I let them choose what they wanted their website to be about.  I am still working out the best way to teach this class, but it was nice to hear a student say that I was at least doing okay.

So far, I have really enjoyed teaching in the high school.  I like seeing students who keep trying at things when they are hard, ask for help, solve their problem, and feel successful. I love seeing the lightbulbs go on.  And I don’t think I have ever felt more proud as when we did a review activity about HTML and CSS the day after I taught it and saw how much the students actually LEARNED! Now that was a great feeling!