Student Teaching

Alright, well I'm sure you're all wondering about my first week as a teacher... what? You aren't? You come here for Henry's short stories and poetry? Ehh, screw you, I'm typing it up anyhow.

Good God do I not like waking up at 6AM, it's just a generally unpleasant thing to do. I certainly did pick a strange occupation for myself with that in mind. Anyway, while I know I've stated this a half billion times now, I have to wake up at 6AM tomorrow and every day even though the school doesn't open until 9. I have to do this because I do not have a car, instead I get to hike and ride some 50 miles from home to get to the school house. It takes me about 40 minutes to dress and shower and gather up all my crap, then I trudge off into the snow towards Forest Ridge Elementary School, well I did Tuesday anyhow. We haven't been getting all that much snow around here surprisingly. It is cold though, and that sucks; cold weather means a couple things for me. It means that A) I cannot wear my favorite coat and have to settle instead for my less attractive but warmer one. And B) that the portions of my journey between bus stops are agonizing 20 minute stretches of cold and I end up nose dripping when I make it to the school, which really is a pretty unprofessional way to arrive. All in all though it's a pretty enjoyable journey, I get to spend about an hour and 45 minutes every morning listening to The Sisters of Mercy, London After Midnight, E.S. Posthumus, Christian Death and various other musicians on the way to work. (I call it work because I'm a far better employee than student and I don't want to screw this up, hopefully adopting that mindset will keep me on task.)

As for my actual day at the school, well for now I spend most of it at a desk at the back of Mrs. Veglahn's 3rd grade class nursing my mango energy drink to keep awake and observing the way she teaches the class and handles the problems that her students occasionally stir up. When the kids go off to gym class, the library, lunch, or any of their other midday activities Terra (that's Mrs. Veglahn) runs me through writing up and carrying out lesson plans which is apparently a rather large part of course. Later on I'll be writing up and carrying out my own lesson plans with these 30 or so kids as guinea pigs, but that's still about a month or so off.

At recess I'm sent outside to watch over the kids... I suspect because it's cold outside and being student teacher means that on top of learning the trade I also get to perform grunt work. I don't really mind though, besides the nipping wind the worst I've had to deal with so far was a kid from another class trying to climb the little chain fence that marks the end of the blacktop to retrieve a stray kickball. Past the fence is a paved road leading back to the staff parking lot, and then thick woods with a small ditch in front of it, for obvious reasons the kids have to stay within the fenced area.

After Recess I go back in and sit in the back of the classroom again, have a chat with Mrs. Veglahn about the day, ride the bus home, and then promptly pass the hell out. Speaking of passing out... I've got work tomorrow, I should really be getting to sleep. Work in the morning.

Constantly awoken by a cascading alarms

~Kal

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