Sunday, September 16, 2012

Man It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta

I've been singing this song today with the words changed to "Man it feels good to be a teacha".

I'm lame I KNOW!

Anyway, the reason for this post is to update you all about my life. I had a summer of laying around and thinking that I was never going to get a job. I must have applied to dozens and dozens of schools throughout the US. I had a few interviews, but I didn't get a job. I was offered one job in Arizona, but I turned it down because I didn't agree with their teaching style.

Two Wednesdays ago I received a call from the headmistress of a private girl's academy. The teacher that they hired this summer had a family emergency and cannot accept the position until January. I toured the school, met with a few board members and accepted the position. I am the only teacher at this private academy. I have the job until January for certain and then possibly longer.

I have 9 girls from 4th to 6th grades. I teach them a home-school curriculum for math and language arts and I have a lot of freedom in what else I teach. Last week was art week, this week is drama week, next week will be either music or social studies or science. Then I will rotate. Hopefully we can get a good balance of material this way. I am still working our schedule out. I found that it is best if the girls have a strict schedule that they work in. And for goodness sakes, they need to work in small groups! Whole class instruction gets crazy. I love groups though, so I can make this work.

We have some bullying issues that we are going to work on next week. I am using the books "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes and "Pinduli" by Janell Cannon. Hopefully we can have some good discussions about feelings. Middle school girls are VICIOUS!

We are also working on enrichment activities. These are activities to help them become better people. Team building activities, yoga, meditation, Christian teachings, and other activities are going to be taught. We are a foundation that is founded on Christian values and I am supposed to teach the girls to be better people in the eyes of God. Through this, I will become a better person as well as my girls. Any type of enrichment activities that you can suggest to me are very welcome! I hope to help calm these girls and get them comfortable around each other and themselves.

I feel good about the work I am doing and I know that it will be a challenge. By the end of this experience I will have done so much good! I am truly blessed to have such a great job and great coworkers! I also got an apartment near my school so I am looking forward to moving in there!

Whew this was a long post! I hope that you will continue to read my updates and provide me with any feedback and suggestions! I can use help from sorority women (team building activities!!), teachers (any activities, but especially bullying), Sunday School teachers (enrichment activities), and all the rest of you!

Now for a bath!

1 comment:

  1. Good luck to you. I have some rubber stamps you may be able to use. Let me know id you are interested.

    ReplyDelete