The Scrabbled: Making Fun of Each Other since '99

…as a teacher! Big things are happening this weekend. First of all, the weather is beautiful. I hope everyone gets outside.

But more importantly (to this post), I am heading out tomorrow morning on an overnight school trip with the 5th-8th grade I teach.

Maybe I can get into the details of what my school is like some other time, but regardless, there is a Curriculum Fair coming up in May. At this fair, the entire student body’s (Pre-K to 8) work will be displayed. I’m in charge of the math area, and I have decided to display the work on gigantic three-dimensional objects (cube, pyramid, sphere for now). The solids with actual vertices will be easy but…

Had this sitting in an IM window when I got back from lunch:

12:25:30 PM Sammy B: We had to draw pictures of a bisected onion today.
12:25:44 PM Sammy B: When I was finished drawing mine, I realized the center of it looked kinda like a vagina.
12:25:52 PM Sammy B: I disposed of the worksheet immediately.

Ok music snobs and know-it-alls. I am co-teaching an AP English class next week, and we will be discussing a poem about some dude trying to get laid. I forget what it’s called, but a flea bites this dude and this chick, and he uses that as an excuse that they should get in bed together. She rebuffs him, and he keeps trying, and it’s kind of funny.

What I need from you is…

Okay, so occasionally, in the middle school, my students are maniacs. Naturally, I don’t want to just punish the bad behavior, but allow the good students to stand out.

So I devised a plan. Though it’s nearly November, I figured better late than never.

I was talking education with a student’s father last Friday. He is originally from Koto, India and sent me an article about India’s Cram Schools which have incredibly increased his hometown’s population.

Students drop out of high school and move out in order to attend a 2-year cram school to prepare for the entrance exam to one of a few Indian Institutes of Technology. These IITs are renowned, as you can imagine.

While teaching for the next two years, I’ll be attending Seton Hall one weekend a month for a degree and certification in teaching. This weekend marks the start of that program. The class is called Becoming a Teacher II: Technology.

Anyway, I swear to you my professor just asked, “Now, what does the right button of the mouse do?”

So I just finished my first “week” at my new teacher job at a Jersey City middle school (it was 3 half-days). I’ve put myself through quite the emotional rollercoaster: one anxious night of sleep; reflective meaning of life questions on the Hudson; and endless over-planning. But after class today, I felt so positively happy, I couldn’t believe it.

Some of my students have already expressed the fact that they both a) have fun in my class and b) are trying hard to follow the rules for me. This is overall much more fulfilling for me personally.

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