Day 101

Woohoo! I made it past 100 days with only a few bumps and bruises. I don't want to jinx myself though so I'm not going to make that big of a deal about it.

But I did have some good news yesterday. One of the assistant principals came and watched me teach yesterday to evaluate how I'm doing and to see if I needed any pointers or help in any areas. Since I love getting feedback--from those who have experience--I welcomed the chance to have her in there. In the interview afterward, she said she had nothing in the "con" section of the booklet she needed to fill out. She said that I was doing a super job and that she was impressed with the sense of control I had in the classroom, especially a classroom filled with freshman who weren't on their best behavior yesterday. She liked how I ignored a lot of the random comments that they were making and how I continued to steer things back into the topic at hand. And when they became rowdy I quickly took care of it. I felt a little better about the job that I have been doing when I heard her saying all those things. I asked her to be critical and she said that there really wasn't anything that she could see that I was doing wrong or that needed to change. But she said that she would come back and see another class on another day and see if there is anything then that she can help me with.

She then asked me if I liked teaching and I answered truthfully that some days are harder than others but overall it is fun. I then brought up the fact that since I'm only on a 1 year contract I was hoping that if the position was opened again after the school year I would be able to interview for it. She said that the fact I wasn't here permanently had totally slipped her mind and that if I ever came up in review she would put in a good word for me to stay. From some of the feedback that she's received from the parents, the students tend to like me and think that I'm doing a good job.

That brings me to my next point. Wednesday during my film class the students did something that I thought I'd never hear out of that class. A few of the students asked if I was coming back next year and when I said that I wasn't sure because I'm only supposed to be here for a year, they asked if there was anything that they could do to help keep me here. I was touched. I just told them that I would let them know in April/May and if they wanted to write some feedback or a letter to the administration about me, they are more than welcome to. One of my students, Musical Theater, said that he was going to do that. He liked me better than the other teacher and he said that "She would grade us like we were professionals and would stifle our creativity. You teach and grade like we're students but we could always do better. You don't stifle us but you do keep us in check." I thought it was a bit weird to be hearing something like that, but I was grateful for any of the feedback that I received.

But I am happy for it being a Friday. 2 of my classes I'm not looking forward to too much because there is a lot of teaching involved today and my voice is beginning to hurt. I don't do a lot of talking unless I have to, but I have a pretty loud voice and I usually try to use my diaphragm when I project, but when I'm in a hurry or if I really need to get their attention, I just use my lungs and I think that is where I am hurting my voice. I really need this weekend to let my voice feel better. The next coming weeks I've got a lot of teaching that I've got to talk, plus I'm going to a conference that I really need my voice at.