Sunday, November 18, 2012

Is it me?

Another week has gone by at ASFMS and I'm still not sure if it's the place for me. I feel as though I have been trying to get to know the students and really work on getting in their heads but I don't think it's working. It's obvious that they don't know it all, however, I don't know if it's me that they don't need. I guess what I'm questioning for the middle school student is territory. This week the students were working on a language lesson with their teacher regarding point of view. The teacher did have a pretty interesting lesson for this, as well as, frightening. She decided to ask for help from the teachers on her team in tricking the students into thinking that their teacher was in trouble with the school. They played the "bad guy" card during the first five minutes of class. While the students were working on their vocabulary words the interruption occurred. A neighboring teacher came in through a side door and began yelling at my CT. The students had shock written all over their faces. This lasted for about 3 minutes. Once the "fight" was over, the door slam came... The next 5 minutes were wrapped up in making sure my CT was okay. Once she "calmed down" and collected herself for the class, she asked the students to write down everything they saw. She told them that she needed them to write a letter to the principal explaining the way both teachers acted. She explained to the students that she needed this letter on file for her own protection. The students agreed to write the letters and some even shared with the class. I thought this was an interesting way to develop the lesson on point of view. The students had no idea that the fight was staged. It slightly broke my heart seeing her lie to the students for the remainder of the class but I didn't want to ruin the lesson. You could see the amount of loyalty the students had for their teacher through their letters. This goes back to my thoughts on territory. Maybe the students aren't really a fan of having a student teacher in the classroom because they have a teacher. THEY HAVE THEIR TEACHER. I don't want to think of it this way but it's hard not to think that the students are brushing me off because they know I won't be there after the month ends. I can't help but respect their distance, however, I want them to know I'm not replacing their teacher. This week has left me feeling a little frustrated and defeated. I'm hopeful that this week will be different. I'm hoping to gain some of the resistors respect. I'm hoping that I'm just being paranoid because I do enjoy the middle school level.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, Ashlee. That was probably a very strange thing to witness. You're probably right about kids not trusting you as much because they don't know you. However, that doesn't mean you still can't be an effective mentor and teacher to them. From my experience as a teacher and teacher educator, it seems like it's not just age, but it's also the population. For some reason, kids in economically and racially diverse schools seem more open to sharing their personal lives. Enjoy these kids for who they are--after all, those blood and guts stories sound really fun!

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  2. When I started reading this I was like oh wow! that's nuts! haha but I think that was a really interesting and unique way to teach point of view. Although, I do agree with you when you say you felt bad the teacher was lying to her students, especially since they reacted with such loyalty and enthusiasm! But I suppose in retrospect that really wasn't all that bad. Pretty cool! :)

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