Last week was another packed week as I find myself staying later and later, prepping and teaching and grading and generally enjoying myself. On Monday, I had my second formal observation from my advisor and while I thought the class went well enough (something my Cooperating Teacher noted), he missed some key details leading to a skewed evaluation which also continues to display a thorough dismissal of school culture which affects the comments. Sigh.We are now deep into Macbeth and I am enjoying studying the analysis and preparing to bring it to the classes day by day. The kids are baffled by the language and most are struggling with paraphrasing the night’s reading but we are gamely forging ahead. I enjoyed working with them as we deciphered the text and found the themes and the deeper meaning, as I continued to tie the text to historic events, so they’re reading between the lines with me.On the other hand, they find my quizzes tough. We’re having one 20-point quiz per Act and I am trying out different quiz formats for each Act. We began with multiple choice then short responses and in both cases, they floundered. The vocabulary for Act I sank so many scores, I dropped it for Act II because there isn’t time in the schedule to really review the vocab which is less important than other facets.Over in World Lit, we concluded our reading of The Kite Runner. Midweek, it was so warm and sunny, that I let my kids talk me into taking them outside for the class. It was the power hour and they promised they’d actually talk. Which they did and it was an enjoyable change of scenery. Overall, though, the kids remain the strong, silent types, barely talking the rest of the time in one class, and marginally better in the other. One of the parents asked to meet with me, which was an interesting experience and after a discipline issue, I found myself communicating with another so I am getting the full teacher’s experience here.By the end of the week, I also began assembling materials for the final week I’m teaching World Lit and even began looking at what I will be doing post-Macbeth up through Easter. That will be dystopias and that’s certainly a little more in my wheelhouse and something I’m looking forward to.In the meantime, the warmer weather means it’s also budget season and I have been applying to a few schools a day throughout Fairfield County while continuing to network and hoping I have done everything right so once schools are in a position to hire, I am prepped to be interviewed.I am well passed the halfway mark and there’s a glimmer at the end of the tunnel.
#Tags: teaching