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Currently Listening To: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, T Swift

Hey friends, I am here at my desk (I have a desk!) during my planning period (I have a planning period!) on Day 2 of middle school.* The thing about student teaching is that there is a progression -- I'll ease into the whole thing (PTL), so this week I'm more observing the actual teaching (although pretty involved in free student work time, answering questions and checking in and such)...which means I don't have things to plan in planning period. Yesterday I doodled for about 20 minutes. Today I brought my computer.

Here are some things I have learned:

• Incoming 6th graders are very lost and confused. I mean, I get it -- bigger school, switching classes, complicated schedule and all that. It's all just so overwhelming for them, and they don't even have lockers yet! One kid this morning had his schedule masking taped to his shirt. I appreciated that...as well as how seriously my teacher untaped the bottom half from his shirt to study it carefully when he asked where his next class was. We've been letting classes out early and sending them to their next classes in groups. The funny thing is, though, that kids are asking me for directions right and left, but I don't know where everything is. These poor children.

• My school is about 10 minutes down a winding country road. A two-lane road. Yesterday, I rolled out just after the buses did. Today, I'll try and avoid that.

• It is very hard to wear heels for a whole day, especially newish ones. Now, I really want to be the kind of teacher who wears heels every day. And at 5' 1 3/4", I feel like this is feasible and understandable, but by lunchtime all I could think about was how many minutes (hours, actually) til I could take them off. I suppose this is something I'll have to work up to.

• To get things out of the vending machine, you have to have Hulk-like strength and shake that thing within an inch of its life. This was learned the hard way, through these 5 steps: 1. I forgot my lunch. 2. I rummaged around my typically cash-less wallet and managed to find 2 quarters. 3. I made my way to the vending machine in the teacher's workroom and was relieved to see they had bags of chips and stuff for 50 cents. 4. I put in my money, punched in the code, and the chips began to move...and didn't fall. As if the universe (or my own forgetfulness this morning -- which we can blame on the fact that I was trying to take the recycling out and give my roommate a ride when I should have been grabbing my lunch -- and the vending machine were conspiring against me.). 5. An older, seasoned teacher walks in, sees my plight, and shakes that machine with much more vigor than I had previously thought she possessed. 6. Chips acquired; I am semi-less hungry. Success story.

• This teaching thing is tiring. When I got home yesterday, I collapsed on the couch, stayed there for two hours (my roommates had Friends on, I dozed a little, it was pleasant) until I had to drag myself up and go to my (THREE HOUR LONG) evening seminar. Thank goodness I had a leftover half of a peanutbutter and oreo milkshake in the freezer in the midst of this. That evening-before-the-first-day-of-school anticipatory Cook-Out run sure paid off.

And tomorrow will be Day 3, and then the weekend. Never before have I looked forward to a weekend with zero plans so much. 

*I didn't actually write this whole thing at school. I am currently on my couch. Turns out I had a 6th grade team meeting to go to during the second half of my planning period. Oh, and the vending machine debacle took place... 

[image via Pinterest]

Student Teachin'

Currently Listening To: The Lumineers. They performed in Cville last night, and we got fro yo and stood outside the venue and listened in. It was pretty good.

Many apologies for the prolonged absence, but it's been because I've been settling in to my new role as a student teacher...followed by an incredibly full and fun weekend celebrating my roommate Brittney's marriage (and getting to catch up with and hang out with all the friends I've missed all summer long)!

To be honest, though, student teaching so far has been a lot more relaxed than anticipated. Of course, it is still professional days, so no students yet (they come on Wednesday!), but my teacher is so nice and pretty casual -- I knew this from the very first day when we, along with two of her former students now going into high school, went out to lunch and then to Wal-Mart -- and I've gotten to come in a little later and leave a little later and kind of ease into the whole thing. It's been mostly mornings full of meetings and afternoons full of setting up the classroom and planning out the first few weeks of class, but we did have an 'Open House' where we got to meet a bunch of our students and their parents! I'm excited for Wednesday to come and things to start for real, but I know it will be really busy and different at that point.

Thanks for bearing with me through this! 

[image via We Heart It] [p.s. my classroom looks nothing like this]