I am studying History Teaching at BYU and just finished my practicum hours at Oak Canyon Junior High. I was in my dream setting: 7th grade Utah History! No I am not crazy and yes I WANT to teach 7th grade. Moving on. I decided to do an internship rather than student teaching which means I dont have a mentor teacher and I am thrown into the lions den with my own class, having to come up with my own set of rules, and making my own assignments. All of this without a single day by myself in a classroom. I worry daily about how to start my year. What do I say on the first day, how do I introduce myself, are the kids going to hate me right off? What makes my situation worse is that I have never really felt adequate in my capabilities of teaching and content knowledge. I think my dream, I mean NIGHTMARE, is proof of this. Here is what filled my subconscious mind the other night:
It was my first day of teaching and I was assigned to Oak Canyon. I was happy with this because I was familiar with the school and had spent a lot of time there. My classroom was quite nice, except for a giant pillar in the middle of the room. I also had two huge french doors draped in lace that served as the door to my classroom. That was strange. Things were going along fine, especially after I told the students we were going to be dancing in my class and pointed to a huge pile of blue dancing shoes. They were pretty excited. I continued to introduce the course until my cell phone started ringing. It was Mom. Of course I answered it because that is the logical thing today when you are in the middle of teaching a class. I completed zoned out from my students and spent the next who-knows-how-long chatting it up with Sister Belnap. When I got off the phone with her and looked back at my students I realized 3/4 of them were gone! The class was empty except for the sporadically placed student that didn't desert me. I started getting frustrated and confused. Non of my students would answer me when I asked where everyone went. I felt like the teacher on The Christmas Story who wanted to know why Flick didn't come back from recess. Finally after using fear (telling them that their final exam at the end of the class would determine their final grade) to get it out of my students. One girl on the front row told me where they went: to 7-11. I looked out the window and miraculously could see the 7-11 and all my students lined up outside. My biggest worry was that they had to cross the McHuge 6 lane road. I couldn't leave my class to go get them because I feared my remaining students would also leave. The Principal later came walking across the highway with my students, shut my french doors, and locked me in with the kids so they couldn't leave again. Then I heard some PCD waking me up with Buttons. Wew.
When I told this story to my teaching methods class the next day they all thought I was crazy and one blurted out, "Someone is a little insecure about teaching." Yeah no duh Sherlock. Shut up and leave me alone because that isn't going to help me. Ahh. I want to die or at least fast forward my life two years.
2 comments:
What is PCD? Hey you shouldn't worry about your knowledge of history! You are like a little FREAK with all your stored information! Love you.
Oooh this could be a fun one to analyze...the French doors represent your love of art, the large pillar in the room the looming obvious fear of having to be the one in authority, and the students leaving the understanding that you, of course, you alone, solely in the world, are responsible for the outcome of the next generation of youth. Basically, don't screw up. I'm kidding!!! You're going to be fantastic and all of the boys in your class will have such a crush on you that you will be able to get them to do anything.
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