Ah, late August, a time to show up on a 100+ degree day in a jacket and tie and pretend you're not sweating profusely as you stand closely by your CT and smile while making encouraging eye contact with the 25 students in the English III class you've decided to observe. You take in the wall decorations, the inspirational quotes gleaned from Shakespeare, the Breakfast Club and Office Space movie posters, the little useful signs proclaiming magical tools for the activation of student learning.
"FANBOYS," "THE DEAD VERB LIST," "PASSIVE VOICE."
By now, you've been through a lot of classes; each one supposedly instrumental in preparing you for these moments when you are going to be floating through the room, passing out or picking up assignments, chatting with students, answering questions about the difference between "idiom" and "analogy." Frankly, you're still nervous; and let's face it, you're still not that sure you’re going to be any good at this teaching stuff. Sure, you know all the books, you love the language, and you’ve even sat through some pretty sick and twisted classes to get to this point (STATISTICS? REALLY? WHY?!).
You've learned all the rules of writing well enough that you've gotten used to breaking them elegantly.
The CT, Ms. T., introduces you and tells the students how lucky they are to have you as a resource in the classroom. You smirk at the word. You're still not sure if you're a very reliable resource. Confidence is a big issue for you. Knowing what you're talking about doesn't yet mean in your mind that you can get other people to know what you're talking about.
Now, you look at your CT's daily objective board and you smirk your way through Monday with the kids all shyly raising hands when you pass by, not sure about you, but still in that mode of exploratory curiosity that will carry them through the first few weeks of school.
But of course, I'm writing in the second person when I should be writing in the first.
This was my first Monday. I'd spent the summer in summer classes, hurrying to meet requirements, trying not to let any of my grades dip below a B so that I could continue on, unimpeded, towards the ultimate goal of my own classroom with my own batch of 170 High School Students with attentions spans running the gambit from minimal to that of the Zen-Buddhist-super-student.
The school is large, old, wooden floors, separate libraries for fiction and non-fiction, wings separated so that social sciences, language arts, math, and physical sciences don't crowd each other out. It's not a block schedule, which is new to me as a teacher, and frankly a lot less complicated. I think I prefer it, after a week. The kids know where they're going already. It's one less thing for them to worry about. That is a good thing.
Routines and Procedures are already being run through by this highly effective teacher; a protocol for handing in assignments, the establishment of daily bell work or "D.O.L." to use a "T.L.A." Students have assigned seats with numbers and the teacher has a little cup of popsicle sticks with numbers matching the numbers on the chairs. She calls them "magic sticks" and they work the lottery system for getting volunteers from the audience.
"Number 15." A boy rises. "Ah, Jeremy, come on up! Can you diagram this sentence for us?"
One by one they come up. Answers are usually right, or-- if slightly off-- corrected cordially by another volunteer. It's amazing how fast the hour goes. A Daily Oral Language assignment, a class activity, assigned desk work in groups or pairs, and then the bell.
That was Monday.
Tuesday is the same, only instead of diagraming its sentence revision. Examples are taken from "real papers from past classes." The CT goes over common errors: "it's and its," "your and you're," "there, their, and they're," "doin instead of doing." And on the back she shows them the second half of the assignment, dealing with passive voice.
Each day the assignments are completed. They are pre-punched with three holes so the students can file them away in binders along with the class syllabus and tentative schedule. On Wednesday they have a binder check. On Fridays they'll hand in D.O.L. and any homework they had to take home to complete.
Wednesday is the same as Monday, only the air conditioner has gone out and it's 89 and climbing in the classroom. The teacher has moved the class to the computer lab, leaving a note on her door. Today they get a two page packet: Thesis Statements.
Do you know the Formula for Thesis Statements? Well, I didn't, but I'm glad I do now.
Topic + Opinion = Thesis Statement.
After a review D.O.L. on sentence revision they start in on the packet. It's cool in the computer lab and I'm beginning to notice the kids are getting more comfortable raising their hands and asking me questions. Showing up early, I had a chance to meet some other CTs and faculty. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm a student teacher and I keep telling them, "next semester. For now, I still need the training wheels."
At the end of Thursday (AC still not fixed, we met in the fiction library), I've begun pilfering the assignments, taking them each home, photocopying them, and filing them away. I've made no secret of the fact that I'm planning to steal a lot of my CTs stuff to cannibalize for my own classes later on. We've begun talking about upcoming units on the Moderns (1914 and onward). She mentions poetry, and Of Mice and Men. I perk up having just completed a course in contemporary poetry.
"I've still got all the books and print outs in my car."
Tomorrow, I'm taking a few poems into class with me. I'm thinking I might have a few D.O.L. prompts to get the students thinking about common themes and imagery of the Modern period in American poetry and prose. I'm looking forward to Friday. The kids are actually a pretty nice bunch. I'm slowly beginning to learn names. Some of them are talkative, others are quiet, but I think most of them seem to enjoy this English Class. There's a smooth flow to the structure and by the end of week two, the CT has yet to truly enforce her discipline plan.
There will be more next week. Until then, I will leave you with my "inspirational pedagogical quote of the week" gleaned from my Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.
"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." – Goethe.
NOTE: "T.L.A." stands for Three-Letter Acronym.
