Buenas tardes, todo el mundo.
HELLO EVERYONE. I have officially survived my first week of teaching (plus some). No one has eaten me, nor cussed me out, nor done anything absolutely horrific. I haven’t tripped while walking around the classroom, and have even managed to make my students laugh. Granted, it isn’t until AFTER I start to laugh at my own joke that they laugh.. ahem, anyways, I’m working on the funny part.
Here’s the lowdown of my classes: I teach 6 classes – 3 of Spanish 2, and 3 of Spanish 3. I have about 150 students in total of which about 110 are boys. It makes for an interesting dynamic. I tried to go into the situation being a hardass – no smiling, no nonsense, no talking, just do your work. I was so scared the kids would walk all over me. Who am I kidding? That isn’t me at all. While I do expect a lot from my students (they have their first test tomorrow.. dun dun dun), I have realized that there is a lot of room for fun and that I don’t have to wait until November to smile (as the old teacher tale says). There is one hour that is a slight annoyance — we have an advisory and announcements period. Here, I babysit 20 juniors while they do their homework and listen to announcements. It’s not even in my classroom! grumble. But, the worst the kids do is talk and show up late to class, so I really can’t complain at all about my job. In fact, after the first day, I danced around my classroom with my mentor (WHO is incredible and a native Spanish speaker, I might add).
On the other hand, I have to come appreciate the teaching profession a whole lot more after being in it a week by myself. I’m exhausted all the time and have come to the realization that I will probably be exhausted until next summer (which I might try to go to Spain and work at a camp…? maybe? wanderlust problems.. or maybe I’ll just stay at home and run, I don’t really know.) Teachers put in long days, sometimes up to 15 hours a day. I had no idea. And yes, I am a notorious procrastinator, but I don’t piddle around at work because all of my distractions are more than likely blocked websites (i.e. pinterest, facebook, etc.) Maybe I’m just a slow worker. Anyways, it’s all worth it to me. I have been throwing around the idea of coffee drinking. I’m afraid I’ll become addicted, on the other hand, it would make prying myself out of bed at 5 am a lot easier. SPEAKING OF 5 AM, I had my alarm set this morning for 5 pm. That was good……. Thankfully my bladder never fails me and I woke up at 5:22 in a panic.
I just want to say that I love my job. It’s worth it being so busy. I know they say the first year is the hardest, so if I survive this, then I think I’m good.
Now– story time:
I have kids that push my buttons, kids that are filled with excuses, and kids that just make strange noises. 7th hour Spanish 3 is my absolute favorite hour of the day. The kids are talkative and excited, and really like to participate. As we were reviewing a worksheet in class today, one of the boys was drinking out of a plastic bottle. He made a squeaky noise with the bottle because “his tongue got stuck”(or so he says). Now, any normal adult would be able to handle the situation without laughing. Me, nope. I think this was the first time I laughed in front of them. Do you know how hard it is for me to not laugh all day (all I give is a smile or a chuckle)?! Super mature, Katie… I hope I’m not losing my credibility with them..
anyways, that’s that. I love my job. I love Spanish. Esto es todo.
Chaooooooooooo
….and no one can pronounce my last name.
