Not much fun...

I substituted for a 6th grade class last week and I got my butt kicked. Not physically, but mentally. The class was rambunctious and I couldn't really get them to focus on anything. And to finish the day off, a student told me that he had just "sharted" in his pants.

Just Different

"It's not new. It's different"

Applying for a teaching job is a totally different than applying for a job in the business world. For my last 2 jobs in the business world I had to have a resume. A sleek, refined, professional resume. That piece of paper was then submitted online to companies or posted on dice.com or monster.com.

Well, for teaching here is what you have to provide:

1. A completed school district or county application
2. A cover letter or letter of interest
3. A resume (still sleek and professional; no apple or schoolhouse graphics)
4. Copy of your teacher credentials
5. 3-5 Letters of recommendations

Needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed at first by this "different" process. But teaching is a "government" job, so I should have expected a lot more paper.

A Realization...

Last week, as I was washing sand and dirt from "linker cubes" (similar to Legos) after building mountains and building models in the school sandbox, I realized that I have taken quite a turn in my life.

Four months ago, I was sitting at a computer developing "business intelligence" applications for a multi-million dollar company. Yesterday, I got to play "Father Nature" by pouring water (flooding) on sand mountains and "linker buildings" constructed by my students during an erosion simulation. Let me tell you Father Nature is a pretty bad dude, wiping out mountains in about 30 seconds.

The good thing is I don't really miss my old job. I miss the people, but not the work or the corporate red tape. Yes, schools have plenty of bureaucracy, but I think it's for a better cause...kids.

An "A-HA" Moment

This week in my college class I was asked if I had any "a-ha" moments to report from my teaching experiences in the past few weeks. My mind was blank. Nothing to share.

Over the past two weeks, I have been teaching a science unit on geology and rocks. The kids have had varied interest in what I have been teaching, but love to spend spare time in class examining, rubbing, playing and hanging out by the "Rock" table (a table covered in all sorts of rocks and minerals) in the back of the class.

However, yesterday I taught a lesson based on erosion. I started the lesson with a brief 7 slide Powerpoint with photos of erosion in the natural world. One of the pics was of a beautiful sandstone arch in Utah. Then we did "experiments" to simulate erosion by blowing, crushing and dripping (wind, pressure and water erosion, respectively) on sugar cubes (rocks). After blowing and crushing the cubes, the students got into groups and slowly dripped water on the sugar to watch the effects it had. In one of the cubes, as the water crumbled away, an arch formed. The kids were so excited to see that this photo they had viewed 20 minutes ago was recreated in their sugar cube.

I had my "a-ha" moment and I had to smile.

Let's Get It Started

So, you know the Black Eyed Peas tune, "Let's get it started", right? In my classroom the other day I was trying to get started on a task and said something to the effect of "Hey guys, please have a seat. Let's get it started!"

All of a sudden, one of the quiet, shy kids jumps out of his chair and starts belting out the song complete with his own 2nd grader dance moves.

Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started in here.
Let's get it started (ha), let's get it started in here.
Yeah.

That's what I love about kids. This boy was totally comfortable to "lose control of body and soul" in front of me and his classmates. It was a definite high for me.

Teaching Quote

"You don't have to be perfect to be excellent." - Mr. B, Sr.

My brother reminded me of this quote that came from an influential educator and person in my life, my dad. After having a rough day where classroom behavior issues were rampant and I felt a little on edge, this quote helped me out.

I am going to have days where I am not a great teacher or even a good teacher. Days where I feel under-prepared or have less tolerance for chaos. I'll make my share of mistakes, big and small, along the way. Despite this, I can still be an excellent teacher.

Exhaustion

The past week has been a challenging one for me. I have been lacking energy due to little sleep and lots of stuff to to. It's at the time of the school year and semester when all things start to come together into a storm of stress and sleeplessness. My final projects/portfolios and essays are due this week. Deadlines for job applications have come and gone. And I am in my last 10 days of student teaching.

Last night, after dinner with friends, I came home and crashed. My head hit the pillow and I don't think I moved until my alarm sounded 7 hours later. A sweet seven hours that have been in short supply. Today I felt a little more energized.

I guess this means I'll need to find a better routine (earlier to bed) when I have my own classroom next year.

Petrified Poop

My class has been studying dinosaurs and fossils. Earlier this week, we had a wonderful guest speaker who brought in her collection of fossils and petrified objects.

The speaker was telling the class about each of her pieces and where they came from. Then she came to this round and lumpy brown rock and said, "This one is petrified dung." She then paused to see if this got a reaction from my kids. My supervising teacher interjected that "dung is poop". Recognition started to set in, when the guest continued on, "Some people call it sh*t and others call it feces." I just about fell off of my chair with shock and laughter. Luckily, most of the students didn't really pick up on it. However, they spent their free time that day sniffing the petrified poop.

The moral of this story: "Kid say the darnedest things and so can guest speakers!"