My Marathon of Boredom

Somewhere, someone had the brilliant idea that having some training for new teachers prior to just handing them the keys and throwing them in the classroom might be a good idea, and indeed it is. The problem arises when instead of addressing what it is that the teachers are most concerned about, have the most questions about and could benefit from the most, we have the opportunity of listening to what the administrators think we need to know - most of which is common sense (I think) and totally impractical without hands on experience. And so ended my week of 21 hours of training of which about 3 hrs was helpful.

It was interesting to me how many of the people in this class hadn't thought of things that I think are essential for being a teacher - how to handle late work, what to do with students who are tardy, what steps need to be taken to get more money faster, etc. Either I am just well informed because I have 3 aunts, an uncle, parent, several cousins and siblings who are educators or going into the educator field, or it is just another evidence that common sense is dead. The biggest key to teaching adolescents is to respect them for the progress they've made, treat them like the teens that they are and not tweens or elementary kids and make sure they know that your way goes. Period. No exceptions.

The nice thing is I got some ideas for what bulletin boards I want to do, started to figure out a good schedule to get everything in that I want to get in most of the time (because let's face it - most teachers don't get through everything they want to all the time - but the idea of being underprepared drives me insane and makes me lose sleep at night, and I don't function well with very limited sleep) and finally got the idea of how I want to start my creative writing class. That last one is an exceptional bonus because there really isn't a core curriculum and I have to create my class as I go (this has both benefits and significant complications)

School starts in under two weeks, and if I can just get my students desks (which are apparently on their way) and get some things copied and cut, I'm going to be set and ready to teach with enthusiasm. :)