Overwhelmed

While I am still looking for those little joys, many times this week I have found myself a bit overwhelmed. I imagine many of my friends are experiencing this right now with new jobs and starting grad school. I went to my first day of work at the Joan Macy School where I will be most of the day. I met the principal and the office staff, yet I found out that none of the teachers will be here until next Thursday (I was a little upset at that) and that I would not have clearance until at the earliest this Friday, so I could not go with the head liaison to help register the girls who are attending public school. I learned that I would be the assistant to the Public School Liaison and probably only do that duty when she didn't have time.
I also learned that I would be teaching Applied Math. To those of you who don't know, I received my degree in Social Studies Composite which means I can teach 8th-12th grade social sciences classes. The closest class in that category to math is economics, which I took at a community college and really learned nothing from the class. To my dismay, it was really teach this class or don't teach anything. I also might have to teach a PE class. Luckily, one of my dearest friends is teaching math for the first year and is also a coach, so I have a great resource.

This leads me to advocate for something else...teaching! This is why you must want to be a teacher to teach. As much as I really don't want to teach math, I know the girls that will be in the class need these skills. Also, I was told that these are probably the hardest girls to "reach". Well the thing is all kids want to learn, but as the teacher I must figure out the best way to get them to see that learning is fun...even if it is math. But even more important than the previous point, is certification! You can't just teach something that seems fun, or you liked when you were in school. There really is an art to the different way that the different teachers are taught. I am so much better at teaching history that teaching spanish or math. This is because I was certified and taught to teach history. I know the history strategies, not other strategies. So for you who are reading this and feel that teaching is calling your name, or you just don't know what to do with your life, and you always thought that teaching might be cool. Think about it before you do it. Teaching is not just something that you do for yourself. You are not just sitting behind a desk making decisions. I do realize that people who sit behind desks make decisions that affect many people. Teaching affects the children. To be an effective teacher, I believe you must have gone through an effective program. Not one that just throws you into a classroom, but guides you through school and gives you the confidence and tools to have your own classroom. And here is the shameless plug -- I know I got that training at Southwestern!!
As the week went on, I learned more and more about the school. There is some part of me that thinks that many of the people I work with are just sitting and watching to see what mistakes I make. Some of them have voiced their opinion on such a young person teaching these girls. All I have to say is this is one of my passions, and I know I will not fail!
Today I made the pretest for the girls to see how far they know and understand. Talk about overwhelming... This class is essentially 4h to 6th grade math. I couldn't even remember how to do somethings on the premade test. That was a scary feeling, how am I supposed to teach these girls, if I don't even remember how to do it. That is the thing with history, you just read and make sure you know the facts and some fun tidbits and say "let's look that up" if you don't know an answer to a question. But once again I find myself saying everything will be good. It is getting better. Thank goodness it is almost the weekend so I can gather all my thoughts about this past week and get ready for the week to come!