4 posts from 2009

What can be an easier and quicker reference than a list of DOs and DONTs to the new first years:

DOs

• go out
• drink
• hang out with non teachers
• talk about non school stuff with your teacher friends
• see Oxford, all of it
• go to an Ole Miss football game weekend experience
• participate in some type of extracurricular at your school
• your blogs, actively, not just the required ones
• find a hobby and pursue it actively
• drink (on weekday afternoons when you get home from school)
  
• show a real side of yourself to your students
• drink coffee
• lesson plan ahead
• workout
• call Ben Guest with questions, he will help you
  

DONTs

• give up and quit
• spend your planning period aimlessly browsing the internet
• skip your MTC classes
• bring your grading home with you
• bring your school troubles home with you
• get too lax on your classroom management
• gain the Teacher Corps Twenty pounds
• suck any toes of your students
• touch your students
• keep your problems to yourself on MTC class weekends
• prejudge or stereotype

In a nutshell, just don't get discouraged. The process will be long, and it will be hard. But there will be those moments that will inspire and motivate you. The MTC classes might get you down, but stick with it. Plow to the end the of the row. Shuck the corn and eat it too. Good luck class of whatever you are (because it's wacked out now or something).

Was I excited about Mississippi Teacher Corps? Sure I was. Why not?

 

Since my senior year of Mrs. Shivers’ AP comparative politics class, I knew I wanted to teach. There was something about Mrs. Shivers that just flat out inspired me to be a better student. A passion, a compassion, a determination for her students and her work. I knew what it felt like to be inspired and I wanted to know what it felt like to be the inspirer. And so, I would become a teacher.

 

At first, Ole Miss was just that convenient university that had an honors college, an international studies program, a marching band, a free ride via my alumni grandpa scholarship, and one helluva college football tradition. Then, it turned into something different. I lived it. I breathed it. I drank it (among other things).  Ole Miss will always be that “spot that ever calls”.

 

And now you are telling me there’s a program that will allow me to teach in Mississippi, live at home, earn a free master’s degree, AND give me reason to come back to Oxford? Well hell, where do I sign up?

 

Then came summer school…

 

This wasn’t so bad, 20ish kids, 50 minute lessons, team teaching. Then come back to Oxford for classes that would help me become a better teacher. (The only thing I might have done differently would have been to live in Northgate. I feel like I missed some camaraderie among my fellow MTCers by having my own place in Oxford) Dr. Gutierrez did indeed motivate me to teach Spanish and teach it well, and boy was I out to teach some inner city Jackson kids some Spanish!

 

Looking back at Wingfield, everything is kinda blurry. I can only remember a few students’ names without really thinking hard, I have a few lesson plans, and the rest is just kinda like one of the scenes in a movie where you only get to see certain clips of a the revelation moment that happens at the end. Here are the clips that stick in my mind:

 

Pushing, condoms, tennis team, anger management kid, student/faculty basketball game, afternoons with Ms. Mathis, and then the faces of some of the famous (or infamous) students that I had.

 

For me, Wingfield is like that big term paper that was worth half your grade for a class in college. At first, you tell yourself that you are going to work adamantly on the paper and make a good grade. But procrastination gets the best of you and you end up throwing things together at the last minute. This is obvious to your teacher (or in this case your students) when you turn in the final project. You get a C even though you know you are capable of getting an A. However you blame it on the teacher and the fact that you weren’t happy with your assigned paper topic. At the same time, because of your mess up on that paper, you have learned how to write better, how to organize your paragraphs, write a thesis statement, and put together a bang up essay. Now you can write that paper for your next class and completely WOW your professor. And so you find out about a new exciting course being offered and sign up with high expectations…

 

And those expectations didn’t miss a single beat.

 

Madison Central has helped me love teaching even more (because there were those moments at Wingfield, granted not many, that really did make me love teaching). Motivation and respect, the two biggest characteristics that stood out from my Madison Central kids in contrast to my Wingfield kids. I just felt more at home at Madison Central. I didn’t have to be this hardass teacher that was too big for his breaches and kept a straight face on at all times in order to “potentially” instill some type of fear in the students (wow I was a mess). Now, I laugh with my students, I make fun of my students, I smile at my students, I make stupid lesson plans with pictures of myself photoshopped and wearing a bikini. I call parents and they immediately want to have a conference so we can work out the problem. I fall in that category of the few and far between. Simply put, I love my job. Each morning I drive to school, excited about what could potentially happen that day. I’m excited to see certain students. I’m excited to see my coworkers. I’m excited to eat the lunch I prepared the night before. I love my job.

 

Other teachers at my school complain about a student in their class chewing gum, texting in the bathroom, falling asleep….at this time last year, I was complaining about students cursing me out to my face, smoking in the bathroom and texting in class then hiding their phone in their bra. All things are relative. Whenever my students frustrate me, sometimes I take a deep breath and think back to the situation I was in at Wingfield and tell myself to let it slide.

 

Still, I look back at my time at Wingfield and I have a lot of regrets. Would I have liked my job a lot more if I had had better classroom management? Yes. Would I have felt a better connection to more of my students if I had let down my hardass mode every once and while? Probably. Would my students be more interested in what I was teaching if I had put more sense of humor in my lessons like I do now? Considering my sense of humor and theirs, probably not. However, regardless of all these “what ifs” and “only if I hads”, I still consider my time at Wingfield a learning experience that has helped me grow as a teacher and individual.

 

In addition to my teaching, MTC has sparked my interest and love for my home state. While teaching Spanish might not be as highly regarded as teaching English, Math, or Science, whatever I can do to educate and influence our youth, I’m gonna do what I can.

so i joined a USTA tennis league to play around and stay in shape (now that ive lost 20 lbs.)....i nonchalantly mentioned it to some of my students and some of my male students said they were gonna come watch....lol ya right.....

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5 of my students came and watched me play tennis, i was so embarrassed...then, to top it all off, they had taken sharpie marker and wrote S-E-N-O-R, letter by letter, on their chest and pulled their shirts up to show me

i lost the match 7-5, 6-1...but had a hell of a time laughing at them as they clapped for every point i won (even those when my opponent hit into the net). moments like these make me love what i do and feel like im really making an impact, even if it's only to have students come and laugh at me flail on the tennis court

ya, i know i havent updated in a while....no real excuse, just been real lazy. the new year has brought some changes...for starters, class is going well.....after the first semester i had ONE (yes ONE) student failing....granted this is probably due to the fact that my semester exam was 10% of the semester average (school policy) and me and the other spanish teacher made the exam SUPER easy....going into the exam, i think i had about 10-15 that were failing or borderline....thanks to the easy exam, they were bumped up just fine

during the holidays, i stuffed my face and gained a lot of weight, so i decided to buckle down and go on a diet....ive gone through phases where i have gone to the gym on a consistent but never have i actually gone on a diet where my food was limited....some people had told me about south beach so i looked at the book and it seemed like something i could handle....well after 8-9 days on the diet, ive lost 8lbs and still going strong....usually i go to the gym 1 hour a day and just eat right....who knew it could be so simple right?

i also went to the cotton bowl over the break which was FRIGGIN AMAZING. go rebs!

other than that, i dont really have any funny and outrageous school stories to tell as other MTCer still get exposed to due to the schools they are in. to be completely honest, my job is simply amazing.....last year, every morning i dreaded waking up and going to work.....the drive to my school was miserable because i knew that every minute that passed, i was that much closer to getting to my job...

now, i LOVE going to work....i still listen to the same ESPN radio morning show but it is no longer like im driving to my execution at the hands of 16 year olds while listening to Mike and Mike....granted there are still tests to grade and slackers to put up with, but the support of the administration and the desire to learn of the students makes teaching so much more enjoyable and less stressful.

at the same time, i wouldnt trade my experience at WHS for anything. if i had been thrown right into madison central, theres NO WAY IN HELL i would have anywhere near the sort of appreciation i do now for where i am and where ive come from....i have a completely overhauled sense of humility and that helps me in my daily life. never thought id say this but....thanks wingfield