5:00 am the phone buzzes…NO SCHOOL TODAY. 6:00 am the phone buzzes twice and then the phone rings…Northern State is closed today. So I was free to sleep in as late as I wanted and to do whatever I wanted on the single extra day out of this year. I realized I didn’t even turn my alarm on (oops) and later woke up at 8 and then again at 9. It was very pleasant to sleep with no worries of being late and it wasn’t even the weekend yet.
When I finally decided to get up I made the trek to Walmart (my car did a complete circle on its own) and get a few groceries. I baked muffins and redboxed three movies. I watched the first movie, Courageous, and did my three loads of laundry at the same time. This movie was very inspirational. I watched it with great anticipation from the reviews from friends and colleagues. I learned a lot from watching this video. It’s not about what happens when there are no challenges around you and life seems easy, but it is what happens when you are faced with a challenge and if you seek the Lord for guidance. He is with you at all times whether you know it or not. He rewards those who honor him and is not bias of skin color or age. My favorite part of the movie, being a Spanish teacher, was when the construction worker, Javier, joined the two policemen on a pick up. They put another gang member in the car with him and he started speaking Spanish and to the other man it sounded threatening. The catch was (the best part) he was actually talking about food at lunchtime (gibberish).
I joined a few friends and baseball players and went to the ball field parking lot to go sledding. We had a rope behind the pickup and held on to the fungo bat as we were pulled around on the sled. We had two other tools that we used to enjoy ourselves, two tubes. It had rained quite a bit the night before and therefore it was perfect with the ice to use tubes. I had a great time being whipped around the parking lot, watching other attempt at the task, and watching one of the guys do a barrel roll no less than four times. I know he will be sore tomorrow. But I thought that it was a great way to spend the single extra day of the year when school was called off and we finally had some kind of winter.
Today is back to school and it is our short day as well. Those students who are in our longer days missed two days due to snow days and I am not sure how we will catch them up. I think that we will just review the previous grammar lesson and move on to the next. We do not have time to be behind and I only have three weeks left (actually a total of 2 with the days off we have). I am preparing my lesson plans and there is no other day that could be sacrificed for a snow day. Even though I would love to sleep in, I want to teach my lesson to the students and see how effective I am as a student teacher and how I can improve as a future educator.
This weekend I will be travelling back to good ole Aberdeen and work at the old job for Saturday and Sunday. They need extra help and I am willing to help. I am supposed to be starting on my own next week and I am ready, but still nervous. I am now in control of what they learn and how they learn it and I have to teach for those 85 minutes. I am up for the challenge and believe that the four classes that I already teach have offered a lot of experience. All my students have been quiet up until now, so now I have to learn how to adjust to those rowdy classes and manage them well.
Improvements:
Withitness
Keeping the attention of the students (at the end of the day it is a struggle)
Good things:
Punctual
Understanding
Positive Reinforcements
Ripple Effect—cut it off before anything else occurs
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