Gosh, has it really been two weeks since I’ve been here? Please accept my apologies! I really should be making more of an effort to update more often, seeing as this is my last semester of college and all. I’m just letting the workload overwhelm me, and I’m working to fix that. In fact, for the third straight week in a row, I balanced my checkbook and paid bills! I know, I know, that’s not such a big deal, right? But for me, it really is. I would let school so overwhelm me that I would go three or more weeks before balancing books. It would get done, at most, once a month. That’s not good. Not good at all. So, I’ve taken myself in hand and for the past three Fridays, I’ve gotten it done. Even though this past Friday was nearly Saturday. It doesn’t matter. It got done.
Also, I have probably the biggest project of this semester behind me, as of last Wednesday. I had to teach a full 40-50 minute math lesson in one of my education classes. I’ve never taught a content-area lesson before and I certainly have never taught a lesson that long before. It went off without a hitch, but it made me realize some things. First, I love to teach. I love it up there, asking questions and pulling information out of my “students”. I love planning the lesson and deciding on what I’m going to do and in what order. I even enjoyed making my own worksheets. They are a work of art, if you ask me! I love the reflection process. That time when I go over the lesson I taught and decide how I could have made it better. THEN, I get to CHANGE my lesson plan so that next time, it IS better! And someone, someday is going to pay me to do this! I also realized that teaching to my education classes is nothing like teaching to a junior high class. There is no management, really, that needs to be done when you teach a practice lesson to a group of education students. They obediently sit and listen and answer questions, and they usually know all the answers. No one acts a fool, no one needs to be told to sit down until they have permission to get up. No one must be disciplined. I don’t have to worry about whispering while my back is turned. It’s nice, actually, but not a realistic situation.
Anyway, I still have some projects coming up in another education class, but they’re not as concerning to me as this one was. There is a presentation, a classroom observation, and a portfolio yet to put together (mostly before November 12th, so things are coming due really quickly), but I’m not worried about them. I haven’t started them, yet I’m not worried about them. From what I can tell, I have two assignments left in Web Development. I’m nearly two weeks ahead on assignments in that class. Algebra Through Technology rarely has homework, and when it does it’s fairly quick and simple. Linear Algebra is really the only class that keeps me consistently busy. I have homework to deal with everyday, if I chose. But I’m not behind on my work in there. I’m just keeping up with it, but I’m certainly not behind. So, things are settling down. I’m sure that come mid-November, I’ll start freaking out again and neglecting things like this blog, the checkbook, housework, and bathing, but by that time the semester will nearly be over and it won’t go on for quite so long.
Just recently, I finished reading a book, and it wasn’t for school! *Gasp* I KNOW! It’s related to school stuff, but it wasn’t an assignment. I KNOW! “Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol is what I read, and I must say, I’m disgusted by our education system. Don’t get me wrong. I was disgusted before I read this book; he just gave me better reasons to be disgusted. Bah! The book was written in the early 90’s and some of his research was done in the mid-to-late 80’s, but those things are still going on. Nothing’s been fixed. Just take a look at New Orleans’ schools and you’ll see “Savage Inequalities” being played out in real-time.
I’ve been reading a second book this semester. Another one that wasn’t assigned to me. I KNOW!!! This one is called “Tools for Teaching” by Fred Jones. It covers a lot of basic classroom management techniques that novice teachers miss out on learning. It’s just not part of the curriculum. I like a lot of what he says, even though it smacks of a prison warden’s mentality sometimes, but I can also see that if you’re not of the dominant culture of the US (WASP), you might be very uncomfortable doing some of these things. In fact, some of his techniques, as done by a person of Asian persuasion who was raised in the Asian culture for example, would come off as disingenuous. But, if you’re white, middle-class, teaching in a suburban district, yeah his techniques work. Lucky for me, I am white and mostly middle-class, and I live in a suburban/almost rural community that is also white and mostly middle-class. I don’t mind diversity. Part of my childhood I was a minority in my school, after all. I do mind the crime, violence, drug use, and poverty mentality of the more urban districts, though, and don’t want my child exposed to that. So, here I sit. In an oh-so-typical teaching situation, custom made to perpetuate the inequalities between rich and poor, black and white, wanted and unwanted, educated and not. And as much as I would love to be a force for changing the inequities of our current school system, I feel tied down to doing what is best for my family. As I should. Perhaps, one day, when the Kiddo has grown up and is on his own, I will take up that cause and teach closer in to Houston. Or, I’ll find a comfortable niche and just stay there. We’ll see.
