Class is in Session

On Thursday, the following things occurred in my class. Some of these things I noticed, others I did not. Feel free to guess which things floated under the radar:
* A student yelled shut-up
* A student took off his shirt and threw the shirt at another student
* A student, upon receiving a worksheet on rounding numbers, looked at me and said "I can't do this" and then sat with her head on her desk, unresponsive to either me or her classmates, for 15 minutes
* A student interrupted my instruction to let me know her cell phone was ringing
* A camp counselor for the camp that is housed at my school came into the classroom and began yelling at a student
* 7 students were chewing gum

Turning into my third grade teacher...

The past few weeks I've been saying a lot of typical "teacher" things. I want to list some of the more blatant examples of phrases and statements that have come out of my mouth, but which I have obviously channeled from my third grade teacher Ms. Souder (she was a tough lady).

"It is no one's job but the teacher's to reprimand another student. When you call out to tell on a student for calling out, now YOU are causing a disturbance."

"I'm taking this marker away because you have not showed me that you can handle using it yet."

"I should hear no talking."

"Your job in this classroom is to work hard and help yourself grow academically. If someone is bothering you, you need to ignore them and focus on yourself."

"That's a warning."

"Open your books. Now."

"Why are you out of your seat?"


I'm listing these phrases just so that I can remind myself that everyday I am an authority figure. I have to remind myself here on this blog because it doesn't feel that way in the classroom.

Gooooooood Morning

It is not even 6 o'clock in the morning yet, and I'm dressed and ready to go. Because it is so early (and because the days get shorter) now when I wake up it is completely dark. I cannot imagine how hard it will be to wake up in December when I will be hours rather than minutes away from sunlight. Here's a picture of sunrise in NYC -- the view from my Craptown U dorm is considerably less inspiring.

In desperate need of a brightside

I have slept for, maybe, a total of 8-9 hours since Sunday. And it's not looking as if I'm going to add much to that total for the rest of the week.

Today on the way to school, I sat in a steamy and uncomfortable bus as our bus driver tried his best to navigate the bus through literally 6 inches+ of running water thanks to a torrential downpour. There was zero visibility and the bus driver had to keep getting up from his seat to wipe the fog off the windshield so he could see. Nothing like the intense fear that you may die to wake you up in the morning.

For the bazillionth time in a row, it feels as if I'm having to plan a new lesson that has nothing to do with the lesson I had originally planned.

On top of this, today I found out that my class has 6 students who either need to pass the reading or the math state exam to become 6th graders. This means that everything I teach needs to help them or they're repeating the fifth grade in the fall. No pressure!!

On the brightside, yesterday I signed a lease for a 2 bedroom apt on the Upper East Side, literally steps away from Kylie. Woohoo! I have a place to live that is far, far away from Craptown U.

One Week of Teaching down...

After my first week in the classroom, here are my stats:

135: minutes spent teaching writing
130: dollars spent at Staples on school supplies
96: high temperature on Monday
approx. 35: minutes spent crying
18: number of students on the roster
18: number of students I'm excited and hopeful to see each day
14: hours slept between Monday and Friday
13: number of students who regularly attend class
10: hours spent commuting on a non-airconditioned bus between Kingsbridge, Bronx and Jamaica, Queens
6: the grade my students will be entering in the fall
5:45 am: the time I wake up every day
3: number of objectives I attempted to teach
1.5: number of objectives students mastered
0: number of friends I've seen or spoken to this week who are not in TFA

I am half-way done with my time at Craptown U, and 3 weeks away from being done with in-tense-titute. Wish me luck!