Reflections of a New Teacher

These are my reflections beginning from my first few days as a student teacher and on...

Friday, August 25, 2006

Exhausted

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Nine hours of driving (minus lunch and a few stops) and one red-eye flight later, we landed at DIA a little ahead of schedule (LOVE Frontier Airlines). We made it to baggage claim just before midnight Wednesday night, yet by the time we got our luggage into the car, out of the car, and after I printed all of the materials I needed (or thought I did) for the student teaching meeting I didn't get to sleep until 2:30am. Fun times.

I woke up at around 7:00am for the big all-day 8-5 student teaching meeting... but still arrived too late as parking was a bit of an issue on campus, surprise surprise. I should have walked in 5 minutes early... but after standing in line to pay too much to park I walked in 5 minutes late. Ah well, about 20 people walked in after I did so apparently I wasn't the only one with that problem.

Overall, I'd say that this meeting was very important and useful for me. The day was not ideal, but it wasn't a complete waste either. I feel so much better... I feel like I have a clue about what is to come and that is very important for me. I hate feeling like I don't know what's going on. Before I basically knew I was "student teaching", whatever that meant, and that I'd have to do a "Teacher Work Sample", whatever that was... but I didn't know any specifics. Now I do. Hurray!

I was a bit annoyed with a few aspects of the meeting, but what do you expect? I know it's hard to put these things together so nobody get defensive or anything. But for one thing, I detest power point. I guess that's my own personal thing... regardless, if you're just going to read off of a power point, what's the point? They put me to sleep and tend to be very boring. I'm sure the information was valid... but we took longer than needed and again power point is boring. I'm pretty convinced the day could have been condensed by a couple of hours, but oh well. An 8-5 meeting is fun, right? Heh.

I'd say the most annoying part of the day was the resume workshop. Now first let me explain that I was very grateful for the workshop and it was a great idea... BUT nobody told us we could/should bring a working copy of our resumes! Um, that would be rather important, guys. I did see "resume workshop" on the agenda the night before, and even thought to myself that it wouldn't be a bad idea to print off a copy... but I didn't stress about it since they didn't tell us we should and it managed to slip my mind quite quickly. I figured that it would probably only be a presentation since they didn't ask us to bring them. Wrong. When we arrived, they asked us if we had brought them. Heh. Do they think we're mind readers? I think maybe three people had. Even then the presenter proceeded to rush through her power point that was chock full of good information (again with the power point, but oh well) to the point that none of us could write anything down so we could "have plenty of time to work"... then they gave us 50 minutes to "work with a partner on our resumes". Funny guys. If I've already got a resume I'm not going to start from scratch. Luckily they printed off copies of the powerpoint for us and we got them halfway through the "workshop", so at least we have that valuable information. I spent the first half of the time searching through my old e-mails to see if there was any chance I'd e-mailed myself my old resume for student teaching and hadn't deleted it. Nada. So during the second half I created my Career Services Online profile as they'd suggested we do earlier in the morning and then when I was done with that a girl that I'd had practicum with last year came over to say hello. Pretty much a good waste of time overall but at least I got to catch up with a friend.

I'd say the most helpful parts of the day were the discussions of what was to be directly involved with student teaching, help with filling out my licensure application, and most especially the meeting with my University Supervisor and my seminar group. It's a group of four other students who are also student teaching. I'm fortunate in that two of the other students are also at my elementary school, so we see each other a lot which is fabulous. I'm part of a great group, and I'm so excited about it! Everyone is so nice and I know just about everyone from having had education classes with them before. My university supervisor is really nice and very laid back. This is a good thing, only I'm a bit concerned because he is very lax with deadlines (i.e. there aren't any so long as we get everything done before the end) and I'm the kind of girl who needs the deadlines. I'm afraid my procrastination monster might rear its ugly head. But hey, it's working out for me in one respect: He isn't requiring us to do our reflections in journal form, but rather through just talking to one another. This gets rid of a lot of tedious busy work, sure... but it worked on me. If it were something we had to hand in, I would hate it... I'd feel like I was just writing it for the supervisor, that would be my audience. Not me, not anyone else. But instead of that, I've decided to do this blog for myself... and for fun I'm sharing it with my lovelies that are close to me. Much better audience with a better purpose created in a fashion that I enjoy much more. See? It worked, your plan worked ;o) Haha.

I need to remember to: Get finger printed for licensure (not easy to find time to go in to the police station), check up on my work sample requirements, apply for a subsitute license (oy), finish online course... okay now I'm stressing myself out. I'm going to stop with that.

A Rant: I got my tuition bill. I'm paying as if I were a full time student going to campus and taking 12 credit hours of classes (which costs the same as 18 hours). I'm paying all student fees, such as the rec center, the RTD Bus Pass, etc. just as if it were a normal semester. The problem: I'm not on campus EVER, do not require any of the facilities, and 10 of the 12 hours I'm being billed for are my STUDENT TEACHING hours! The other two are the seminar, which I'm fine with as we have to compensate our University Supervisor for his time. BUT... the elementary school is not seeing that money, my cooperating teacher definitely isn't seeing that money... so what am I paying for?!? I'm paying $3,000 so I can work full time, not be able to have another job, and to sit in a coffee shop and talk about the whole thing once a week. I realize that some of what I'm paying for is the services the university provides with coordinating everything... but I really don't think that's worth $2,000. Whatever University. This is BS. I should be paying for 2 credit hours and none of the other student fees that I'm not using, thank you very little. ::takes a deep breath:: I don't know if I can financially survive... I wasn't able to save over the summer as I had hoped... thank goodness for graduation money. Is that ironic? To spend graduation money on tuition? Heh. Thank you Mom and Dan for offering to pay for my gas, that's very kind of you... that might just keep me alive :o) Other than that I've got $200 to last me... so don't expect much for Christmas anybody. And hopefully I can do a bit of nannying, or babysitting if you will... we'll see.

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