Week dos (means two in spanish)

I am at the end of week two of my fourteen weeks of student teaching. The past two weeks have been mostly about observing and preparing for my upcoming teaching. Luckily, this week I was able to substitute teach for one of my teachers. That day was much needed. I needed that extra boost that teaching is what I wanted to do. Being up in front of the students helped reassure me that I have  a passion for this.

Since I have had a gargantuan amount of time to prep, I feel prepared for the coming weeks. I have the general idea of what I want to do, I just do not have the day to day lesson plans. That is important for me for a couple reasons. First, I will not feel like I am tied down to a lesson plan just because I spent time on it. I have the flexibility to change my schedule up according to my students. Secondly, I cannot or do not want to think that far in advance. It sort of overloads my brain. Like these past two weeks where I have had time to prep everyday and observe has just fried my brain, which I think is a good thing. It means I need to be up with the students and interacting and not just sitting at my desk.

I noticed one thing in particular this week: complaining. Everywhere there seems to be complaints thrown around. It is exhausting, since I am not one to throw out complaints every few minutes. Maybe this is something that teachers need to do to survive their days, but that makes me nervous! I do not want to turn into a teacher who has to complain to survive. That is a negativity I will not accept for my life. When students complain it is not so bad. I expect that. Teenagers will complain at anything. I mean, I still wish they knew how good, especially at this school, they have it. But that kind of knowledge only comes when they are graduated a couple years, if at all.

Another thing I noticed is how much of a problem cell phones are. I mean. These kids have them out every second of the day. So I am scheming a way to stop that. Basically, I will have a zero-tolerance policy for phones. It I see it, I am going to take it. We will see how it goes...I am hopeful.

So here I am, on a Friday. Preparing for my first week as a teacher, albeit a student-teacher. These kids are going to look to me for what they are learning. It hasn't all hit in yet...but I am sure it will the restless night before.