looking forward

I've been pretty sucktastic with the posting. School's over. The past month or so of school I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm definitely glad that I made it through the first year. If I look back at the first week, I wanted to quit so badly because I was having such a hard time and I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I'm really glad that I stuck with it.

I learned so much from my kids, all ~100 of them. I've (started to) learn how to teach. I've learned how to work with many many many different kinds of people - students and faculty. I've learned more about my own field, through explaining it to others. I've learned more Spanish through working with my ELLs, even a little bit of French (sadly no others, even though my kids had a few more up their sleeves). I've learned that little old me has been someone that some of these kids (definitely not all) look up to and come to for support. I've learned that some of them may never like me. I've learned that's okay. I've learned what I will repeat next year and what I will change come the first day of school in September.

Something that will definitely change in September is that I will not be teaching the same classes. I will be teaching Biology, because that is what my certification is in, but I will not be teaching the same levels. No more ELL; instead a college-preparatory level of biology combined with the lower level biology that I taught this past year. I'm really excited for the college prep bio. I think that the kids will be easier in terms of behavioral issues. I'm also really excited for the ELL kids taking biology next year - their teacher is awesome. He has so many fantastic materials and knows the way to implement them and is so creative and will really work well with them. I hope that the new ELL teacher has a better time with them than I sometimes did.

That's weird to say though, because my favorite class was an ELL class. I loved them. It was a tiny class and everyone got along and was incredibly excited about learning. I hope I get that same excitement with some of next year's kids. My worst class was also an ELL class. Overfilled, overly rambunctious, couldn't care less if they were there or not. I guess it's all the luck of the draw. These kids are of a different breed; they are very secluded from the rest of the school - they are extremely sheltered. I tried to make it so that they needed to learn English, most of their other teachers didn't. If you don't have to speak English at school, and you don't have to speak it with your friends and you don't have to speak it at home, why ever learn? I tried to make it so you needed English. The progress and development of their English throughout the course of the school year that I saw made me extremely proud. Proud because I believe that you do need English, and it is much easier to learn it when you are younger and when are surrounded by it, for at least one class period a day.

I will miss them. They are very caring students. I remember one time, another science teacher came into my room and I was sitting at a table with my translator (we weren't talking - just sitting). The room was silent - you could have heard a pin drop. The other science teacher asked me what horrible thing I did to get them to be that quiet. All I had done was told them that I had a migraine and gave them some GROUP!!! work to do - they worked on it individually which is very difficult for a class where some kids have a great deal of trouble reading. Upon hearing this, the other teacher asked if I really had a migraine. Of course - I wasn't about to lie to them just to get some quiet. All of their work was quietly handed in at the end of the period.

My non-ELL classes of the time would never have done that.

woohoo

I (basically) got rehired for next year. Only basically, because I still have yet to sign the magical piece of paper - the contract. But, I have gotten all of my observations, and I've talked with my boss about what assignments I will have next year (maybe something different than this year! exciting).

cabin fever

My room is finally warm enough to have the windows open to enjoy the breeze without freezing. Hopefully the comfortable weather lasts a while before my classroom turns into an oven. (the first two weeks of school were god awful, my room was at least 95 with like 90% humidity every day = disgusting, especially when around 14 year olds, who just had gym, who don't completely understand the concept of deodorant yet.)

I'm super excited about spring, and have been growing a jungle in my classroom. I really have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with all of these plants; hopefully I can have some for lunch in May/June.

I'm done with observations for the year (well, almost - I have a fake one left) and it feels great. All of them so far went really well. I hope I get a contract soon so I can sign that bad boy and feel even better.

But the most exciting news as of late... I got a smartboard!!!! I love it! It's the most amazing tool ever - my ELL students love it, my regular kids love it. Most of them are so excited that they know more than me about it and are teaching me new tricks constantly. It's so great when my ELLs don't know a certain word, I can simply put up a picture of it in an instant.

don't you think it's a little late for this?

I got two new students in the past two weeks. It is mid-March. Neither of the new students speaks a lick of English.

How in the hell am I supposed to accomodate a new student, that has no idea what I'm saying, in mid-March. There is no possible way that I can actually give them a grade for the year. There is no way they can get caught up to what is going on in class in time.

Thankfully (it's probably horrible to say that, but...) one of the new students realized that it was way too insane to start school in mid-March with no knowledge of English and will be returning to start over in September. This will be a much better start for the student. They will be able to get not only more biology info, but also a better understanding of the language. Even the students who spoke NO English in September are now doing much much much much much(!!!) better, so hopefully the same can happen for the student who switched to starting in September.

The other new student is sticking with it. It's pretty ridiculous and kind of sad that even though he is going to try very hard (hopefully), there is no way that I can give him an actual grade for the year. He is going to get an incomplete for the year and not get credit for the course (or any of his other courses as I've found out from other teachers) and will have to start again in September anyway.

I wonder how late into the year I will continue to get new students.

frown

so today, one of my kids in my favorite class asks me why I've changed and why I'm no longer the fun Miss BioTeacher from earlier in the year :-(

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? It's so pitch-black in here sometimes.

randomness

I got a new student last week. He speaks French. I had absolutely nothing for anyone who speaks French, so I went out Friday after school and bought him a French-English dictionary. I'm kinda pissed though, I asked the people at the bookstore if they had any idea where I could find a French science glossary (I have a huge multilingual one with like 10 languages in it, but French is not one of them)... they told me to go to France.

Things have been going well at work. I'm almost afraid to say that because I don't want it to start going downhill. I've finally gotten to a topic that my kids are interested in and that they actually remember from middle school. It's nice teaching and having to answer their questions. This is the first time all year that they have asked me questions. Sometimes I want to jump up and down saying, "oooh, ooh, oooh, pick me, I know this one!" but they've never asked me anything before. It's so nice to teach kids that are exciting about the topic (even if they won't outwardly admit it).

February break is almost upon us which will be a nice break. It's so hard to believe that it's already February. I feel like if I blink, it will be June. Some days I want to savor it all, some days I want to blink and have it all over.

Random story:
In the middle of teaching a lesson, one of my girls blurts out, very loudly, "Missssssss, when are you gonna have babies?!?" Hah, I was like, "not right this second, but check back after school." They kill me some days.

Vacation!!!

Woohoo! As of 3:oo PM today, I am officially on vacation! I plan on sleeping in everyday until I have to go back in January. =D