Friday night I arrived back in Delaware after a whirlwind week of recruiting. We made stops at Westminster, Geneva, Grove City, Pitt, Allegheny, and Duquesne. It was especially thankful for the opportunity to speak in education classes at Grove City. The students seemed interested in hearing about my experiences and asked some good questions. One of the students made a comment that I just seemed like an average "Grover," and if I could be successful teaching in an urban school, it made him feel like maybe he could do it too. That was really encouraging to hear, because that's really what I was trying to communicate. All in all, it was exhausting, especially with all the public speaking and staying up late and having to initiate conversation with students who probably didn't want to talk to me at camp fairs. So yesterday I didn't do much of anything, and it was great. Well, I did attempt Level 3 of the 30 Day Shred...it was really, really hard.
Today I went in to school to check out the state of my classroom. It wasn't great. First, the heat isn't working. That's bad. It was 52 degrees, and someone had brought in a space heater, so I'm guessing it stopped working sometime while I was gone. Also, stuff is in really random places. Definitely my class's fault and not the sub's. There are markers in with glue sticks and toys on the bookshelf and games mixed in with blocks. This might not sound like too big a deal, but I try to keep things really organized, and the kids definitely know how to clean up. I just left everything where it was and I'll make them clean it up when they get to school tomorrow. And I really can't tell how much of the curriculum got taught while I was gone or what from my lesson plans got done. So I can't really do my plans for next week. I'll probably have to spend tomorrow figuring out what happened and trying to go from there.
Now I have a week's worth of papers to "grade," which should at least help me figure out what lessons they did, although I think a bunch of kids were absent. Getting back after missing school makes me think I should avoid missing another day of school at all costs. Five days of teaching is probably going to thoroughly wear me out, but at least tomorrow is free pizza night at the gym!
Today I went in to school to check out the state of my classroom. It wasn't great. First, the heat isn't working. That's bad. It was 52 degrees, and someone had brought in a space heater, so I'm guessing it stopped working sometime while I was gone. Also, stuff is in really random places. Definitely my class's fault and not the sub's. There are markers in with glue sticks and toys on the bookshelf and games mixed in with blocks. This might not sound like too big a deal, but I try to keep things really organized, and the kids definitely know how to clean up. I just left everything where it was and I'll make them clean it up when they get to school tomorrow. And I really can't tell how much of the curriculum got taught while I was gone or what from my lesson plans got done. So I can't really do my plans for next week. I'll probably have to spend tomorrow figuring out what happened and trying to go from there.
Now I have a week's worth of papers to "grade," which should at least help me figure out what lessons they did, although I think a bunch of kids were absent. Getting back after missing school makes me think I should avoid missing another day of school at all costs. Five days of teaching is probably going to thoroughly wear me out, but at least tomorrow is free pizza night at the gym!
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