Well. I’m about two weeks into teaching, and it’s been a bit
of a culture shock. After working with middle school students for several
years, I thought I knew what to expect…
The differences in expectations between the East Coast and
here are kind of amazing. I came from a building that expected me to give
homework, and a lot of it, every night. Here, thirty minutes of reading is all
that’s expected…and I find myself doing loads of extra prepping with all the
free time this has given me. I still arrive about an hour before I’m supposed
to, but instead of grading homework and writing assignments, I’m prepping
PowerPoints and getting ready to facilitate group work on a scale that’s a
little new to me.
The kids, too, are reeling a little bit from my style and my
expectations of how hard they’ll work. They’re in a new school, and adjusting
to things like lockers and switching classes is an exciting thing, sure. But
they are still learning that the elementary school nonsense isn’t going to fly
in middle school…especially with someone who cut his teeth as a substitute
teacher on the East Coast. They’re working harder daily than I think they
expected, and I can already tell the students who are applying themselves,
embracing the material, and extending their knowledge…and the ones who are
fighting it and thinking that teachers are like the T-Rex…if they sit still I
can’t see them.
They have another thing coming. Case-in-point: They had to
practice walking down the hallway four times today because they couldn’t a)stop
touching lockers b) walk in a straight line c) stop touching lockers.
“I guess the fourth time’s the charm, isn’t it,” I asked
them.
Nobody answered. Good thing. : )
So we are all learning about each other, and what to expect
from each other, and testing each other to see just how well (or poorly) this
year could go.
I’m confident it’ll be great.
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