The Week Ahead

Here comes the busiest week yet.

Thus far, I've only had two long days - last Wednesday & Thursday.  On my long days, I wake up at 5, have breakfast, read the news and head out to my school to be there at 8.  From 8 until 12:15, I observe and team teach several Living Environment sections.

Afterwards, I head up to CCNY for coursework, which begins at 1:30.  Theoretically, this gap should be enough time for lunch and train ride.  Often lunch is a bit short.  From 1:30 until 4ish, I have my graduate coursework.  At 4, we all have our Student Achievement Framework (SAF) session.  This lasts until 5:50, at which point I am free to commute home.

Excluding an hour commute each way, this rounds out to be about a 10 hour day.  So far, two days of this is overwhelming and so I can imagine four will  be two-fold.  While I do love student teaching, the coursework can be a bit repetitive.  It seems I just hear the same hot-button words over and over (differentiated instruction, formative assessment, diagnostics, etc...).  However, we are currently mapping out our curricula for our respective courses, which is incredibly practical and helpful, so I am glad to be doing that.

All in all, I'm looking forward to the week, but not the long long days.  Most of all, I am looking forward to more time in the classroom with students.

One Month Down, One to Go

COURSEWORK
Going through the past two weeks of coursework felt like time was standing still. Now, though, it feels like the blink of an eye. I can hardly believe I've been through 2 weeks of science immersion and 2 weeks about adolescent learning. That month was here and gone. To give you a sense of exactly how much coursework that is, it's 8 credits worth of courses in the span of four weeks. That is what made it so intensive.

As a bit of a sidebar, I came across this amazing mind-mapping program for Macs that is incredibly useful and intuitive for making brainstorming webs (or whatever you want to call them).  It is free and the results look quite professional.  The program is called Mind Node.  If you do give it a spin, let me know what you think of it.  I'd be curious to know.

WHAT'S NEXT
Next week, we begin our final course in addition to our fieldwork. I am a bit nervous of the field experience. Thus far, scheduling information has been distributed uncomfortably late. For example, I didn't know where I was to go or what I was to do on this coming Monday until yesterday afternoon. I still don't really know what the reporting instructions are for field work (classroom observation / practice teaching). Apparently the responsibility of field work rests more with our respective field training sites (schools) than it does with the Teaching Fellows office or City College. Understandable, but frustrating and anxiety-inducing. I have contacted my school to find out exactly what they think is supposed to happen, but really, I'm not sure that anyone actually knows for sure.

ALTERED PERSPECTIVE
I have had my perspective of what to expect drastically altered within the past two weeks. I've been told stories about students rolling joints IN class, student's genuinely believing the sun is a living organism, homework assignments being futile, students being drunk in class, openly gay students dancing together at prom (that's a positive one, obviously) and a variety of other anecdotal influences that have altered how I think of my approaching teaching experience.

This experience is giving me the tools to transmit information to students effectively, manage my classroom effectively and problem solve effectively so that the daunting task of my first year's chaos is mitigated. While I might feel more prepared, I will still expect crazier things so that maybe I won't be as surprised with a curve ball (rare is it that I used baseball analogies).