So as many of you may know, I have moved to and settled into my apartment in L.A. It was an exhausting day of running back and forth between getting parking, getting my room keys, filing forms and of course moving in all of my STUFF. Between now and my move in, I've had my brain crammed with all sorts of deadlines, acronyms, social injustice information and teacher things.
Last week was the first day of school at the high school I'll be teaching at. For the rest of the year I will be considered part of the staff at Roybal Learning Center. My awesome mentor Liz lost no time at all prepping me for the big first day. We have six periods in the following order: Algebra1, Algebra 1, Conference, Honors Algebra 2, Statistics, Statistics. I will be immediately taking over period two Algebra 1 completely, and slowly easing into taking over period 5 statistics later.
I was to be introduced as not merely the student teacher there to observe and occasionally teach at Roybal, but as the co-teacher with equal responsibility in the student's achievement, equal say in lesson plans and grades and almost equal amount of time standing in front of the classroom. Needless to say, with this co-teaching goal in mind, I was fully immersed into my classrooms day 1. Yes I was nervous and yes, I occasionally thought to myself "what did i get myself into??" But day 1 actually wasn't too bad. Neither was day two. And then the thing I dreaded would happen, happened on day 3.
Prior to beginning this program, I had heard horror stories about teachers teaching in title one districts. The students are disrespectful. They will talk back and challenge your authority. They will start fights. They come from gangs. Need I say more?? So after hearing all of this, naturally I expected the worst. To my surprise, the kids were nothing like what I had heard. The joked around, they were polite and some were shy, some were class clowns, some loved to talk and some were really sweet.
Except for period 1
Well no. I'm being melodramatic. But period 1 did have an interesting vibe to it. Perhaps it was the first period on the first day of school.
Two things surprised me Thursday morning. An assignment was assigned on Tuesday and it required students bring in a few objects that represented them inside a paper bag to share to the rest of the class. They could've taken a blue marker from the classroom plopped it in and told the class their favorite color was blue. But here's how things went. Firstly the back-up plan was to have the students share their traffic goals which they created yesterday if the did not do the assignment. Naturally, about 4 students out of the 20 actually did it. I asked for volunteers to go first. One student likely pressured by the silence reluctantly stood up and presented. The next 5 students I had to force pick on them. It was excruciating as each student stood up, announced that they did not bring the bag and that their goal was to "come to school." And here's when it happened. The thing i feared. Attitude form my students. I said "how about J next?" The student I called on glared at me, and started uttering a string of swear words stating that he "didn't want to fucking do this and that this was fucking stupid." on and on he went until i involuntarily glanced at my mentor teacher. I think that was her cue to take control.
First thing that surprised me: That it actually happened, and that it happened so soon. My first awkward experience! Second thing that surprised me: How easy it was to bounce back. Yes, I definitely did not handle the situation well at the moment. But the rest of the day continued excellently. And this incident soon became my first teacher story I rambled on about with my cohort friends.
Sadly, I chose to take over period 2 rather than period 1 not because of fear! but simply because of my eagerness to perform well on the ever distantly looming (P.A.C.T the thing i have to do in order to be allowed to receive a preliminary credential). And admittedly, it would be easier to perform well with period 2 than period 1.
):
I hope I don't become a teacher who prefers they "easy route."
Anyways, on a lighter note. I went to my first gay bar ever! The first friend I made was a gay guy in my cohort named David. We bonded over the inefficiency of our apartment complex and gossiped about our first impressions of the others in our cohort. Speaking of which, our cohort is awesome! Everyone is great and unique in their own little way. For example, we have one guy getting married to his bff of 10 years in something like 93 days. We have another guy who is white and who can speak Chinese fluently (perhaps even better than me). But in general we all get along really well which I love. Math people are so uncomplicated and practical. My favorite! On the other hand there are some interesting characters in science.....
So last Friday, the second friend I made in our cohort, Erica and I walked all over Westwood, drank beer in Oharas and gabbed about everything. (we bonded over attending the same undergrad school UCI! anteaters represent!! woot woot!) We decided to take up David's offer of joining him for the night in West Hollywood. At first I was very guarded. I told myself "OKAY remember what Darius said! There may be straight guys just pretending to be gay so that can prey on people like me!" And so we went to our first bar. Immediately I noticed everyone was REALLY friendly. Davids friend Fabian introduced us to HIS "black friend" a complete Diva with a capital D who cracked us up all night with all his sass and attitude. There was never actually a moment when he was in an expressionless state. Every moment everyone else was just standing, he was posing. And not just any posing either. Fierce posing.
After about an hour of dancing with everyone, I was having SOO much fun!! and then it hit me why! NOT ONE single person tried anything gross, and nobody was hitting on me or giving me gross looks! (or any girl for the matter) it was THE BEST. There was even a moment when Fabian spotted a creeper guy who was going around humping everyone regardless of sex, and he actually steered Erica and me out of the guys path saying something along the lines of "OKAY GIRLS LETS TURN, lets get you away from that guy." So sweet (:
Lastly, final thing of the night that i love love loved...There was not a lot of pressure to drink. In fact, I felt like there was no pressure at all! Poor David and Fabian sacrificed themselves and drank a bunch of drinks for me but I was never forced. We pre-gamed of course and on my own will, I had about half a shot total. The rest of the night I sipped drinks just to taste them and was encouraged to "drink more" but when i said "nono that's enough for me" no one pushed it. And that my friends, is priceless to me.
Anyways...enough for tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long, brutal day. I will be at Roybal all day long since it is back to school night. I'm nervous but things always seem to end up alright. Until next time!!
Except for period 1
Well no. I'm being melodramatic. But period 1 did have an interesting vibe to it. Perhaps it was the first period on the first day of school.
Two things surprised me Thursday morning. An assignment was assigned on Tuesday and it required students bring in a few objects that represented them inside a paper bag to share to the rest of the class. They could've taken a blue marker from the classroom plopped it in and told the class their favorite color was blue. But here's how things went. Firstly the back-up plan was to have the students share their traffic goals which they created yesterday if the did not do the assignment. Naturally, about 4 students out of the 20 actually did it. I asked for volunteers to go first. One student likely pressured by the silence reluctantly stood up and presented. The next 5 students I had to force pick on them. It was excruciating as each student stood up, announced that they did not bring the bag and that their goal was to "come to school." And here's when it happened. The thing i feared. Attitude form my students. I said "how about J next?" The student I called on glared at me, and started uttering a string of swear words stating that he "didn't want to fucking do this and that this was fucking stupid." on and on he went until i involuntarily glanced at my mentor teacher. I think that was her cue to take control.
First thing that surprised me: That it actually happened, and that it happened so soon. My first awkward experience! Second thing that surprised me: How easy it was to bounce back. Yes, I definitely did not handle the situation well at the moment. But the rest of the day continued excellently. And this incident soon became my first teacher story I rambled on about with my cohort friends.
Sadly, I chose to take over period 2 rather than period 1 not because of fear! but simply because of my eagerness to perform well on the ever distantly looming (P.A.C.T the thing i have to do in order to be allowed to receive a preliminary credential). And admittedly, it would be easier to perform well with period 2 than period 1.
):
I hope I don't become a teacher who prefers they "easy route."
Anyways, on a lighter note. I went to my first gay bar ever! The first friend I made was a gay guy in my cohort named David. We bonded over the inefficiency of our apartment complex and gossiped about our first impressions of the others in our cohort. Speaking of which, our cohort is awesome! Everyone is great and unique in their own little way. For example, we have one guy getting married to his bff of 10 years in something like 93 days. We have another guy who is white and who can speak Chinese fluently (perhaps even better than me). But in general we all get along really well which I love. Math people are so uncomplicated and practical. My favorite! On the other hand there are some interesting characters in science.....
So last Friday, the second friend I made in our cohort, Erica and I walked all over Westwood, drank beer in Oharas and gabbed about everything. (we bonded over attending the same undergrad school UCI! anteaters represent!! woot woot!) We decided to take up David's offer of joining him for the night in West Hollywood. At first I was very guarded. I told myself "OKAY remember what Darius said! There may be straight guys just pretending to be gay so that can prey on people like me!" And so we went to our first bar. Immediately I noticed everyone was REALLY friendly. Davids friend Fabian introduced us to HIS "black friend" a complete Diva with a capital D who cracked us up all night with all his sass and attitude. There was never actually a moment when he was in an expressionless state. Every moment everyone else was just standing, he was posing. And not just any posing either. Fierce posing.
After about an hour of dancing with everyone, I was having SOO much fun!! and then it hit me why! NOT ONE single person tried anything gross, and nobody was hitting on me or giving me gross looks! (or any girl for the matter) it was THE BEST. There was even a moment when Fabian spotted a creeper guy who was going around humping everyone regardless of sex, and he actually steered Erica and me out of the guys path saying something along the lines of "OKAY GIRLS LETS TURN, lets get you away from that guy." So sweet (:
Lastly, final thing of the night that i love love loved...There was not a lot of pressure to drink. In fact, I felt like there was no pressure at all! Poor David and Fabian sacrificed themselves and drank a bunch of drinks for me but I was never forced. We pre-gamed of course and on my own will, I had about half a shot total. The rest of the night I sipped drinks just to taste them and was encouraged to "drink more" but when i said "nono that's enough for me" no one pushed it. And that my friends, is priceless to me.
Anyways...enough for tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long, brutal day. I will be at Roybal all day long since it is back to school night. I'm nervous but things always seem to end up alright. Until next time!!
