November- Teaching is more than teaching.. again!

It is now November. Late is better than never, I suppose, for an update.

Reflections

Teaching is... also a lot about managing time and paperwork. If you can figure out how to do that, then you will have a lot of your job done. The other parts are lesson planning and classroom management. Actually how you teach the information... that is just the icing on the cake or just what you do. Teaching is also a lot about having guts, stick-to-it-iveness, (tenacity or grit) and knowing if you want it or not. Teaching also, like any major job or career choice, involves figuring out how to take care of yourself to a certain extent, or balance.

So a lot of figuring out how to do the above stuff comes with 1) Practiced teachers telling you and showing you, 2) You getting to observe and see how it is done so you can put it into practice 3) Figuring out what part of this is your way of doing things 4) How creative and experimental you are, and how adaptive you are to new situations, and/or how willing to take other people's stuff and use it for your own (especially in NewTech) 5) Personality and what you want to do with life 6) what's going on with you & self-care.. how strong you are, how much sleep you get, how you deal with stress or how you deal so that you can handle the kids, discipline, the daily piles of questions and things to do coming from above (admin and advising sources) and below (kids) 7) How relaxed you can be in the middle of the craziness. All of this can vary depending on various things in the school and in your own life or way of handling things. 

Teaching is a lot of not teaching. Teaching is there, but it is not the only thing. It is a lot of managing different things. There is not much really that can train you for this, especially not in 6 weeks... whatever you do can partially prepare you better or less.
Teaching is also learning that when you are roasted by parents (I had the first ever parent-teacher conference) that you need to learn what is and isn't your fault and let the rest.. or all of it, go. You can only help a student so much, and if you made mistakes, you will try again the next 9 weeks. If the student does not try, you cannot change that for them, regardless of age, it is their responsibility.

Teaching is, again, also a lot of requirements from a lot of different people. It is experimentation sometimes, other times tried and true stuff. It is being real with the kids but not being on their level so much that they think they can run over you... sticking to your guns even when you feel that they aren't loaded.

It is also better if you have people in your same shoes. I don't have a roommate right now and that is tough, but I do have people at the same school in the same situation. 

My life

So that was a fairly natural transition to this section.

My paycheck is interesting. After high insurance rates, I take home (net) only about $200 more per month than I did in my last job, although my gross yearly is supposed to be double. I have so many bills that I am left with $300 a month (or less) to live on. Not much money, and not really much more than I had before.

I also do not have many friends here, so I am trying to figure out how to address what interaction everyone including myself needs. Besides my personal things going on that adds to my struggle with that, I just have not found a church with people my age or where I feel completely or comfortable enough to go to while I am here. I also would like to find a house mate. Perhaps I will learn a lot about being happy on one's own.

If you look at what I said in the section above, teaching requires a commitment to know this is what you want, especially in areas that for one reason or another are tough for you. I do not think this is what I want for my life long term, but I do not want to give up on teaching in case I want to teach as a professor. This would then be a good learning experience. Also, I want to finish out the year or two so that I gain something and give something from being here. I am trying to consider if I want to do something else, and if so when, and what. It is quite difficult.

Conclusions for now...

I really don't know what to conclude. Life is in a state of flux and transition, and teaching as well as the rest of life requires management, working a little at a time, and not getting overwhelmed. It is difficult not to get discouraged when you are trying to do something for others and do not see the fruit of it for a long time. The fruits are varied and may not show up in some students while we are here, but it is like the saying, "They are better off with you than without you"... at least I trust that is the case. 

Great Teachers are Superheroes

Well hello again.
It has been a while since I posted something here. My goal was to update you once a month.

Reflections

Teachers are asked to do the impossible (to do many different things and meet many different guidelines and formats all at once, to teach for each individual when they have 25-40 students, half or more of whom do not want to learn), and are asked to do many things from many different sources. They are under pressure, constantly, daily, to do this. They have deadlines which are last minute and make little sense given all the other work they have. They are paper pushers who if they want to teach well know how to think on many different levels. Teachers who are amazing and last any great length of time either do not do everything, figure out a different way, are superheroes or A+ personalities, or use a combination of these. And, every teacher has different requirements to meet, so some have huge challenges while others have different ones.

Teachers in many situations are also a combination of parent and police. Which to be when and how to lead these maturing children (9th and 10th grade) to being young adults, without being mean but still being firm and using discipline that reflects the real world, is currently my biggest challenge [other than paperwork and lesson planning :) ]. How regular teachers do it well or create an environment where the students want to learn so that 'controlling' them is no longer so much of an issue, is something I have not seen in action. Those who do that must, again, be superheroes. 

Hope, AR, has a combination of people so diverse that it is difficult to teach all the different student knowledge levels, backgrounds, and interaction styles in one room. Some of my classes have a group of kids who like to use 'hood' talk, while others like to dress in cowboy boots and jeans, and some are somewhere in the middle and have their own style more suburban than anything. Students have all types of personal situations and/or living situations. I do not know how to connect with all these differences. A teacher who does that... either has a lot of experience, knows where to find the information, knows or has learned from someone great, or is great themselves. 

My life

I have been doing a lot of paperwork and grading; progress reports came out Friday. Not all the grades were on there, but my goal for the weekend is to be caught up. I have been getting very little sleep as a result of grading and planning. 

I am taking care of a puppy which is 10weeks old now for the last 2 weeks as my own, but I am trying to find him another home. He has to be alone all day, and I just got my first paycheck and do not have much money. 

I am realizing that I am tired of and do not know how to get the kids in my classes to want to stop playing and start learning something. They have computers now, which is the format which they are supposed to have, but they do not respect each other or follow directions which even the assistant superintendent gives them. This last week he had to whistle and yell to get their attention; he is a usually medium-spoken Army Guard family man who is very practical when dealing with people and creative when it comes to education. If they do not listen to him when he tries other methods first, how are they going to listen to me and my fellow young teachers? 

I have been reflecting that this is probably not what I want to be doing in four years. Not if it goes like this year, where some days I feel like I have to figure out how to get the kids to listen all day long. It is an exercise in psychology that I have not yet found out how to win... how to get them to want to listen, to realize it matters, and to choose to participate for one reason or another.

 How long I will stay is a good question. I want to give it a shot, because I know the first year is always tough, and because we teach NewTech style it may be tougher (since we were taught 3 months of non-NewTech). I do not know for sure what my next step should be. However, I like how I feel like I have a purpose and a plan here. Sometimes I struggle with feeling like I matter here, since I came to make a difference. But I think I have a spot that I fill so that helps me feel like I am contributing to society. I think, though, I would like to explore a medical profession, the Peace Corps, something that lets me be outside or use my kind side without always having to tell someone to behave if they don't want to, or something else in the future.

Conclusions for now...

I do not know what the future holds, but that is ok :) 

Also.. I have lots of grading to do! So, I better skedaddle. :) Until next time! :) 

More information to those of you on my email list! :) 

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. :) 

Hello friends,

Welcome to my Arkansas Teacher Corps experience.

At this point I have already been through the summer training program, and the process of transforming the caterpillar into the butterfly is well underway, and perhaps finished. It is now up to me to teach. I will have a support network, and a wonderful community.

Giving updates is tough for me, since each of you will want to know something different and it is difficult for me not to ramble or get too personal. So, I will keep it mostly to these categories: Practical things, and Mindsets.

Since this is my first entry, I am going to also give some background information.

 *   Background: What is ATC and What have I been doing?

The Arkansas Teacher Corps (http://arkansasteachercorps.org) is a non-traditional teacher licensure program similar to Teach for America, but with a focus on Arkansas' needs. It is headed by the University of Arkansas and attempts to find potential teachers (fellows of ATC) who are highly qualified in their content areas and place them in areas that desperately need teachers in Arkansas. Some of us from this year's program are placed in the Delta & Mississippi River region, some in Pulaski County, and some in Southwest Arkansas.

This summer I have spent in and around Little Rock, observing and teaching summer school in Maumelle, and spending the afternoons learning from invited speakers and our 1-2 year TFA-er mentors about the finer aspects of teaching.  We also had assignments, readings, and lessons plans which we completed to help us gain the knowledge we need to teach. I certainly have learned a lot, and both the drinking from a firehose and the treadmill analogies work well to explain the level of input and output we experienced.

Two weeks before the end of the institute, I (and two other ATC fellows) also went with my school district to the NewTech Network conference (http://www.newtechnetwork.org) in New Orleans. I will be part of the Hope Academy of Science and Technology for two of the classes I will be teaching, and this part of Hope High Schools uses project-based experiential learning together with technology such as students accessing their work through MacBooks in an online format similar to Blackboard to teach the students.

 *   Practical Things

Where to start on this section? Perhaps the largest practical challenge has been housing. We all spent several Fridays attempting to find a place to live that was 'just right' for each of us. I found my place the day before we ended the program, and will be moving down in the morning.

We have had amazing chances through this process & from a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce to get to know the people of Hope some, and to get to know about the community. That has been absolutely wonderful, and I look forward to getting to meet even more people and know the area better.

Most of us ran out of our stipend towards the end of the program and began asking family members for support, since most of us will not be paid until halfway through September. Our pay (by each of our districts) will be good though, at least compared to my last couple of jobs, so I suppose it is a trade-off in the long run. :)

I am going to be starting the process of lesson planning and all of the teachy school things, which I am trying to see as an adventure rather than this overwhelming amount of work. I am sure that as long as it is an adventure, both I and the students will get more out of the school year.

I will also be doing everything involved with settling into a new community (drivers license, electricity, trying to find a washer & dryer, etc.) and that also means finding a new church.

 *   Mindsets

Thinking about the practical things connects to what I want to say about mindsets in that it is easy to think about going and doing something short-term to have a positive impact until you realize that this will be your life, at least for the next few years most likely. I originally had the idea "I am going here for 3 years (or less) as a mission, like if I was going overseas to a place for a short time to make a positive impact. I am going to help myself get some education and a useful skill in the meantime as well, but the focus is to help." Now it is more like  "I am going there and there are a lot of assets there; this is the next step in my life but I am going there to help the kids BUT a lot of other people are doing that there from the community already; I won't be there forever BUT it is my home & my life. Its not so bad there, there is a lot of normal & good stuff, & a lot of resources. I am living there." There are ideas about a place from outside of it (crime rates, race, literacy or poverty issues) and then there is the reality of the place from the inside - an amazing community with lots of welcoming people, a decent amount of resources, its a good home, where the people love to live and feel safe.  My personal view about whether I am there short term or long term is still open to change and honestly does not help me feel very settled, but I know I am there now, to learn and to do good. I hope (haha) to be able to have a positive impact in Hope, while I am sure the experience, the place, and the people will have a growing impact on me. :) I have been thinking of what I want to do in the summers and after this, and so these things are open to change, and I want to continue dreaming and planning.

Thank you all for your time, and feel free to email me or send me a message if you have something you want to know particularly. :) 

This photo was taken on our first visit to Hope at the Chamber of Commerce and appears at <http://myhopeinfo.com/?p=255>.