Meeting at the Coffee Shop

The first day I actually met Elphaba, the English department chair and the woman who was to be my student teacher mentor, was the second week in June just after the previous school year had ended. The Brit Lit team was meeting in a conference room in the back of a locally owned coffee joint called The Daily Grind. When I got there, I noticed one of the patrons gave off a "teacher-y" vibe, so I approached her and introduced myself. Slowly but surely, the rest of the team arrived, and we assembled in the conference room. The first woman I had met, "Dani," led the team discussion since Elphaba hadn't arrived yet. She was meeting with a new teacher down the road at the high school and was going to be joining us later.

Eventually Elphaba came in; she was pleasant, but not gregarious; I introduced myself since it was our first face-to-face meeting. She was very polite and business-like, and she began the main discussion with the team—the new transition from Georgia performance standards as simply a curriculum guide toward the new "standards-based grading," which requires teachers to align the specific learning tasks directly to the standard that is being measured. The team decided that the grading categories should be split into three categories: reading, writing, and listening/speaking/viewing (LSV) skills covered in English/LA standards. The assignments would be worth either 100 points for summative assessments and 50 points for formative assessments.

The meeting lasted from about 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and when it was over Elphaba drove up and her white Lexus with a gold trim package and unloaded a whole bunch of text books and other resources for me. She told me I could keep them since the County was moving to new textbooks the following school year ('10-'11). "Cool," I thought, "I'll get a chance to see what I will be teaching before the school year starts." She also gave me her heavily annotated copy of Brave New World, which is the novel she usually teaches in her British Literature classes. She handed it me saying, "Guard this with you life."

Yes. I did need to have my "guard" up for something, but it wasn't Brave New World.

Let's Back up to the Beginning

Since I started this blog near the final days of my student teaching, I'd like to back up and tell you how I started this whole experience. Let's begin at the beginning.

First of all, I wasn't even sure I wanted to do my student teaching this Fall semester. I had already applied to graduate school last spring and was accepted into the program. I debated whether to start my master's program this semester (Fall 2009) because the program only accepts new students in the Fall; the other choice was to go ahead and do my student teaching. I was still undecided at registration time in the spring so I decided to apply for a position as a GRA (graduate research assistant). If I didn't get the assistantship, I figured I'd go ahead and do my student teaching. So, decided to go ahead and fill out my student teaching packet. I made my preferred school selections and turned in the application for the student teaching "experience" for the Fall semester.

I was quite surprised that I heard back on my placement so quickly. In May, I got a letter from the placement office telling me that I was being placed at my first choice school—"Hendrickson High." A day or two later I got my first email from "Elphaba"—little did I realize that she was the wicked witch of student teaching. She sent me a very welcoming email, and I was happy that she seemed so warm and welcoming. She invited me to meet with her and the British Literature team at a post-planning meeting in June, which was about a week and a half away. I was excited to be involved so early in my student teaching assignment. Had I known then what I know now, I would have run screaming down the halls of that high school, busted out the front door, and burned the rubber off the bottom of my new comfortable teacher shoes to escape anything to do with her. I should've known we wouldn't get a long. She told me she was a "cat person." I hate cats.

More later . . .

Final Grading . . . Final Options

I finished grading the 6th block novel projects yesterday. Overall, not bad. Average score for those that turned in a project was 79. I was generous; I could have graded much harder, especially for students that I know should be able to produce a certain caliber of work. But hey, I'm a student teacher, and I guess it won't matter if I was too lenient in the long run. However, my CT is even more lenient than I am! I think that I probably wrote way too much feedback on their rubric sheets, but I felt as though it was important that I comment on what I thought they did well. I probably will not continue to write so much as my teaching career progresses, but I like doing it now because I think constructive feedback on a student's critical thinking is cruical to developing their future efforts.

I am hopefully going to have lunch with my good friend, former professor (though she's not a "Dr."), and overall mentor (I'll call her "Karly Lands") next week. She was an English Department Chair (DC) for many, many years, and an English teacher for 30 years. I have so much respect for her because she stays up-to-date on educational trends, but she is realistic about what works in the real world too. She has high standards, and I hope that I can be as successful a teacher as she has been. Although, I'm not sure that I would want the responsibility of being a DC—at least not at this juncture.

I'd like to get an overall "debriefing" from her on my student teaching experience, particularly because of the miserable initial part of it during my 5 week stint at Hendrickson. I know she knows all about "Elphaba," the wicked witch that was my CT at Hendrickson, but I'd like to get her general perspective looking back over the whole thing. I've really not had a chance to look back myself, but I can say that the prospect of applying for teaching jobs seems daunting at this point. It was a very involved process to apply for a substitute teaching job in Cobb County, so I can only imagine what it will be like to apply for a teacher's job. Then, I'll have to do that for every county in which I apply for a job. *Ugh.*

The End of the End

I went to give my collaborating teacher her "thank you" gift basket today. Since it is so close to Christmas, I got her a poinsettia, a red and green bromeliad, and a red blooming cyclamen. I also got her a miniature purple orchid (the main team color of "City High"). She also got a box of Godiva Truffles, a copy of The Road, two very nice brass book markers (one that was PERFECT for The Road), and a gift card for $25 to Barnes and Noble. All told it was a tidy sum, but I figure since she took me in when I was in a vulnerable situation, it is worth it to thank her generously. I had also been in earlier to give the 3rd period students their little cards; I am glad I came in to say good-bye to all the classes. It gave me closure. I'll tell the story of the "dark side" of my student teaching at "Hendrickson High" in the next few weeks.

What a great, last and final reception I received from the kids in my favorite class. The twins, (I'll call them Nina and Scotty) both gave me big ol' sweet hugs, and, surprisingly, "Teesha" gave me a huge hug. Teesha's hug was awesome because when I first came in the classroom eight weeks ago, she and I had a little "come to Jesus" early on because of her attitude toward me (which was extremely combative).

Those goodbyes made me feel good, but they also, understandably, made me feel quite sad.

So. *Sniff*

Cool.

There are signs of life

This evening I graded about eight of the 10 projects I received from the class of 26 sophomore lit students. What I'm seeing is good stuff, but I wish I had more of the same from the other 16 students who decided not to turn anything in on Wednesday. I'm popping in at City High tomorrow to pass out my little note cards to the 3rd period Am. Lit. class, and I will probably pick up whatever other projects were turned in after the Wednesday due date. Then, I am just a memory for these kids—a ghost putting in final grades on the novel unit!

I went to the end of the term student teacher wrap-up meeting today. It was boooorrrring, except for a teacher that came in to speak to us, Randy Crump. He's a science teacher at Allatoona High—just right down the street from me—and was very dynamic. I am glad I got to hear him speak. He was a straight-shooter, and I always appreciate that in people. He was positive but realistic, which is what I think you have to be as a teacher.

I am working hard to synthesize all of my teaching philosophies, but I am starting to realize that I won't really figure out anything until I'm actually teaching my own classes. There are just some things I won't know how to handle until I've actually been through it.

A Long "Road" To Go

I went in today to do a few teacher observations in other classes. The teacher I observed during 5th period was very cool. Mr. Pline. He gave me a lot of resources to read too.

I went from there to another class for about an hour, and then to another for about a half-hour; I then returned for last :25 minutes of my 6th block to pick up their projects on The Road. Out of 26 students, only 10 turned in a project. Five said they would bring them tomorrow; the rest seemed to indicate that they had no plans to turn in anything at all. This project is worth 20% of their grade for the semester! So disappointing. I haven't started grading the projects, so I hope the ones that I did get make me proud. Otherwise, I'm going to feel like I really failed in teaching this novel, and like I have said before—how does one cope with a situation where students just don't give a frak about doing their work? *Sigh*

Next to Last Day of Student Teaching. . .

I have mixed emotions about tomorrow being my last day at student teaching. I am glad it's over so I can get my sh!te together again in my personal life, but I am going to miss those little buggers at City High School. I gave my good-bye note cards, which were personalized to each student, to my 6th block (my favorite class) today. I truly am going to be sad not to see those kids. I checked the desks after they left today, and didn't find any of the cards shoved in there, but I forgot to check the big garbage can by the door! My son asked me about that one! I'm sure some ended up there, but I think most of them appreciated the gesture.

I am taking up their Road projects tomorrow, and I hope I see some good thinking there as I grade them this weekend. It would be best that I use that project as my ISLA (Individual Student Learning Assessment) paper, but I am not sure I'm going to have time to do that because I had to change schools and do this extra week of student teaching. I also have to still do that monotonous, repetitive C.P.I. document—but don't even get me started on the BS that comes with cranking out some of that drivel they have us do in the education program at my university. Oops— I'm starting to sound cranky now.

At this point though, I know I've let things slip in the rest of my life since student teaching takes up every bit of one's life. This semester I allowed my checking account to get overdrawn, had my water shut off for non-payment (not paying attention to due dates because of student teaching), and spent too much money on taking my own children to restaurants so that they could eat because I was too exhausted to cook when I got home. And, even though no one's been in the kitchen for the last two months, we are battling an infestation of field mice. Oh, and then there's the overdue ad valorem bill on my car tag. So I've got a lot to do over Winter Break.

To add insult to injury, today I got an email from my university's teacher certification officer that said she can't find my GACE Basic scores (Praxis I everywhere else in the country) in my file, although I provided them to the teacher education program two years ago. Now I have to contact the SAT College Board, pay $33, and wait a month to get my 1981 SAT scores so I can get certified. This must be done even though I will have two undergrad degrees, and am simultaneously enrolled in a graduate program at this same university. Whatever. What must be done, must be done. Boy, I am cranky today. I think, though, that I'm really just frakkin' tired. As much as I will miss most of the students, it's probably time for me to exit, stage left.