Student Teaching: A Report

Okay, okay. I know you've all been anxiously awaiting my first post as an official student teacher. I was really going to write last night, I promise. But, as it so happens, after my early morning (5:45 am to be exact), I came home, ate three Oreo's, sat down to watch the news and took a cat nap until Ben got home from work. Then, dinner, cuddle time with Ben, and off to bed at 9:30. Needless to say, you didn't get a new post last night, but tonight's the night.

Let me explain:

Here's what happened yesterday, my first day as Mrs. Hubert and not Lauren.
We got there plenty early (I carpool with other st's) so we had a few minutes to just sit and wait for our respective teachers to arrive. Mrs. B (that's what I'll call my cooperating teacher) got there and we were off on a tour of the school. I also met the big-wigs (the energetic principal) and some of the lesser-folk (the copy machine aids). It was all very enthralling (not really, but I smiled my way through it) and I forgot most of their names within 5 minutes.

After the tour, our 1st period is what those in the academic world like to call a "prep period" where teachers are supposed to PREPare for the next class period, or take care of any items of important business. Since I had nothing to PREPare, I sat at my desk (yes, I even have my own desk) and occasionally walked around with Mrs. B to take care of stuff.

Our 2nd period, like the first, has no students. It is what they call a "Team Meeting." We are "Team Xcell" (yeah, I hate the spelling of that word too, but I guess the students think it's great). This meeting includes the 8th grade teachers in English, Math, Science, and History (and occasionally some of the elective teachers and counselors). They discuss "problem" students, upcoming tests and events, and babble on and on about random stuff that I never thought teachers talk about. This was mostly boring for me because there were quite a few items on the agenda that I had no idea about.

Eventually, 3rd period, students started coming in the classroom and I was faced with the daunting task of making my personal introduction interesting to 13 and 14 year olds. Mrs. B started the class and reviewed what was going on that week, then she turned the time to me to introduce myself. It went a little something like this:
"Hello, my name is Mrs. Hubert. I've lived in Idaho for 5 years but am originally from Sandy, Utah. I will have been married for one year at the end of this month to a boy I went to school with from 1st to 12th grade. Girls, you never know, you might marry that pesky boy that teases you. For our pets, we have a scorpion, an eel, and three crabs."

Sounds pretty interesting, eh? Well, for the most part, the students were interested, especially about the pets. After I said that, they were a bundle of questions, wanting to know everything from what they eat and if I've ever been bitten. They were inquisitive, and that's what matters.

Yesterday we just went to the library, so it was pretty boring, I won't explain each and every laborious detail. Instead, I'll just list a few of my observations that I've made so far. You're bound to get a good chuckle:
- Every 8th grader at Eagle Rock Junior High is 100% and completely obsessed with a little movie you might have heard of; Napoleon Dynamite. They communicate with one another using lines from the movie and many of the boys are growing their curly hair out like the title character. It's pretty fun since I have seen the movie, so I was able to banter back and forth with them.
- One student in each class period, at least, came up to my desk and asked if I was any good at English. Normally, I wouldn't like to toot my own brass horn, but in this case, I had no choice but to tell them that, "Yes, you bet." Inwardly I had myself a little giggle, and thought it was sweet that they are that naive as to think they'd put a non-English proficient student teacher in an English class. However, I understand they are still too young to comprehend such a thing.
- Apparently Puff Daddy, er whatever his name is, has a new clothing brand and it's quite popular in Po-Dunk Idaho! I would have assumed that only select few would wear his clothing (as I'm sure it's steep in price), but every kid seems to have something labeled with "Sean John." And when I asked what "Sean John" was, you would have thought they'd seen a ghost.
- I don't know if it's ALL 8th graders, or just in this school, but I was amazed at the confusion between nouns and verbs. Maybe to me it just makes sense, but I was forever explaining the "Herb, the Verb is a Man of Action" song and the little triplet that goes, "A noun's a person, place, or thing." It got monotonous and a bit irritating, but by 7th period, I was just prepared to answer those silly questions.

Well, there's just a few of the funny things I've seen in my first two days.

Now it's time to eat and then off to bed.

Love you all.

---Teachergirl