Student Teaching

Well, my dears, it is finally that time. I have finally reached that stage in my academic career where I am just beginning to hear the first strains of Pomp and Circumstance. I have just finished the second week of student teaching, and I have come to the following conclusions.

1) Every teacher needs a liberal arts background. In the past two weeks, I have made use of experience gained in drama, physics, and history. I am slowly learning how to make use of psychology. I have yet to figure out how to make use of math outside of the figuring of grades, but I'm sure there is some other connection there.

2) Students do strange things. One of them left a SHOE under his desk.

3) Students will, for the most part, ignore a student teacher unless they need help with an assignment and the regular teacher is either busy or absent. Unless I say something truly interesting or tell my students to stop talking, they tend to act as if I am not there.

4) The importance of proofreading on one's own cannot be overestimated. We preach repeatedly to our students that they must read through their papers themselves and not rely upon their word processers, and we must take our own advice on this subject rather than let a blaring mistake hang on our walls for two days.

Aside from acknowledging these simple truths, I have learned that I cannot trust the financial aid office. They didn't get all of my money into my account, which means that I currently am not sitting with a brand new laptop. I am on my husband's computer, for now, trying to patiently wait for them to fix it, especially after being faced with a larger than expected car repair bill. Apparently, I am far from the only student that they have pulled this awful trick on.

That being said, I'm getting ready to teach some Poe. I will also be teaching The Martian Chronicles, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and some poetry this semester. Up until this point, I had never read The Martian Chronicles. I liked it, but it made me weep for mankind.

I also absolutely must recommend The Hunger Games trilogy. I've read the whole thing, having gotten the third book, Mockingjay, for my birthday a week ago. The Hunger Games is also one of this year's Gateway nominees. I've read another one of this year's nominees, Graceling, and can also recommend it as a good read. Other Gateway nominees that I'd like to read include The Musician's Daughter, The Compound, and The Irreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.