Sunday, February 13, 2011

At the Risk of...

sounding too cocky, I just want to say this; I could be a really fucking good teacher if I wanted to be. I have had 3 snow days, and 2 days this weekend alone (roommates were at a conference) and I got an insane amount of work done. I have the entire next month planned out for my 11th grade, down to the minute. I have a folder for every student with their review work, their handouts, their calendar, their personal tracker, and even an ACTAAP (our state test) rubric breakdown. WTF.

It's actually kind of pitiful that I don't perform like this all of the time. If I put in this much effort and was this persistent, absolutely my students would be achieving mountains. Sometimes when you get bogged down with so much other stuff (social, extra curriculars, grading, monotonous tasks assigned by the school, etc.) there is an easy way to deal with it: live day to day. Welp, apparently having a few days off and being lonely changes that RIGHT around.

If I wanted to be a teacher for the rest of my life (I don't) I think I would be pretty bomb.com in about two years. Once I've rattled the cages regarding texts kids like, practiced some iffy lessons, and refined my skill set - there's really no reason why I wouldn't be good (well, unless I hated it). I love kids. I love my school (most days). But it is so easy to get dragged into the mundane everyday tasks and get so far behind. Perspective. This is what I needed. My roommates got to go the the Teach for America 20th Anniversary Summit for some new perspective and a renewed sense of commitment. I apparently just needed to stay here for some.

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