Those Moments When...

... you go over vocabulary that they've had for a marking period before you give out another vocabulary quiz, and you still don't see perfect quizzes.
... one of your students says, "We have a quiz today?", when they know they have a quiz every week.
... one week they get it, and the next week it's like they have never seen it before.
... no matter how many times and ways you give directions, there will always be that handful of students who just don't get it. Your words might as well be written on the wind or on running water (Catullus).
... when you move seats around, and the students are still determined to talk to that friend, no matter how far across the room he or she is.
... your students think that homework is optional, when it's 25% of the grade.  That goes for quizzes, too.
... your student says, "I will be coming to make up my X, Y, or Z", so you expect them to come... and they don't come.
... they ask the same questions every week.
... they ask you questions about your personal life.
... they love coming to class.
... the class average is a 70 (a D).
... the class average is 100 (A+)!
... a parent tells you his/her child loves coming to class and is teaching his/her siblings and the rest of the family.
... you are asked what you are going to be for Halloween.  Or, if they are going to have a party on Halloween.
... they love an instructional strategy/technique that you are using and really get a lot out of it.
... you don't have a desk.  In fact, you don't even have a table. And you have to carry everything.
... they swarm you, thinking that will pressure me to distribute 30 grades individually.
... you are so glad that the fire alarm didn't go off in *your* class, especially when you don't know the exit procedure because you're a new teacher.
... you get paid!!!
... the student GETS it and you can see the moment of revelation dawning upon him or her.
... that moment of revelation happens to the entire class.
... you break the chalk because you're so excited about what you're teaching.
... you're frustrated because you want to incorporate technology, but it's either not available or you don't know how to use it because you're a new teacher.
... it's a rainy day and 130 kids have cabin fever.
... you realize you have an entirely wasted day.
... you realize next week is a new week - and they're probably not going to remember what you said last week, anyway.
... you realize the kids respect you and look up to you.
... you have 24 hours to respond to 5 parents, and you're in the building once a week.
... the parents are nice!
... you love your job. :)

Most Recent Update!

Things have been very insane!! Here's an update...

1. I actually have a SECOND desk I'm going to be behind rather soon. It's a maternity leave at a Catholic elementary school in my town - I will be in charge of 8th grade Reading/Vocabulary/English.  There are a couple of classified kids in the class, but I'm actually excited to be working with them because I really want the experience.  I am excited to be able to do this!  It's going to start right after Thanksgiving break, so December to March I'll be behind that desk four days a week. It's part time, so it's afternoons for the two 8th grade classes.  It's also a team-teaching experience, and they have literary circles and things... I'm very excited to learn all about these things so I can incorporate them myself into lessons and such.

2. My Latin kids are doing okay... the 6th and 7th graders are picking up the language, but I am going super, super slow, especially since they don't always remember words from week to week. I'm also having problems getting them to do their homework - they officially have no excuse, so they better do it from now on!  Progress reports went out, and some of them are failing just because they haven't been doing their homework and/or haven't made up any missed quizzes.  I'm really loving my job and I'm loving teaching!  My only sadness is that it's not a higher level because I would LOVE to teach high school.  The good news is that I've picked up plenty of Latin students on the side, even at Sylvan, who are operating at a higher level or at least get the basic concepts, so I'm able to push them a little farther than my students.  The 8th grade is struggling, but I think it may help them if I move them on to verbs.  I'm getting settled... unfortunately, I'm STILL learning students' names.  I really wish I saw them multiple times a week so I could learn their names much faster than this pace.  I put them into seating charts last week, so now I at least can match a name with a face on my own (plus, it seems to have largely solved the talking problem in class).

I've been doing a lot of group work and review activities, alongside traditional assessments etc. I wish I could have an experienced teacher observe my class and tell me how I could improve my classroom (if anyone is up for it, let me know!  I love it when people sit in on my class).

3. I FINALLY finished the basic requirements for my CE for English, so I'll be sending that in soon... I can't wait until I can start taking teaching classes. I'm very excited to learn effective, new pedagogical methods.  My 24-hour CE class was very informative, even though I had learned much of that information in the GSE's Introduction to Education class or just from going on interviews/teaching.  It was fun and a great review, and it updated me on the latest trends in education.  I'm glad that I'm learning how to teach while I'm teaching because I've always been a hands-on learner - putting theory into practice really helps me grasp the concepts better.

I also observed a Latin class to complete the requirement, but it was very not my style. So many people in Latin think that there is only ONE WAY to learn the language, which is definitely not true and really doesn't interest too many people in taking the language. The amount of teaching material out there is very hard to work with because it's just boring, especially to kids. There are multiple intelligences and MANY ways to learn Latin.  I'm trying to open it up to people to show them that Latin actually IS enjoyable - I always have loved Latin.  I happened to be one of those straight-up-memorize-it-and-learn-it students, so I had no problem learning Latin the way it has been traditionally taught; however, so many people struggle with Latin because they don't have that type of mind.  It drives me nuts to see that people think there is only one way to learn Latin.  Ugh.

4. Sylvan is also going well.  They have been putting me with SAT/PSAT/ISEE/COOP kids and kids who need help with writing/reading in the middle-high school levels.  I'm very happy with that - it's a great place to work.  The only thing is that I feel that my training was very basic so in some ways, I still don't understand my job - I guess I'm still figuring out how the place works and what they exactly expect of me.  I got my first paycheck, so I must be meeting expectations! I am trying very hard.

5. I'm almost done with writing my curriculum.  I just have to create the last marking period of the 8th grade, plug in the NJCCCS, edit it, and then I'll be DONE.  I can't say it's perfect, but it is a curricular guide - and I'll be happy all in all that I did that.

6. I'm also working on a genealogy project.  This one guy has Italian ancestry, and in tracking down his great-grandfather's marriage records, he had to contact the archivist at the church where his ancestor was in ITALY.  The documents are all in HANDWRITTEN, ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN.  This is a pain for classicists, but even more so for someone who can't even read Latin.  I've been so swamped that I haven't had a chance to work on it, but I'm planning to work on it this weekend.

7. I've also been tutoring a lot of students on the side, as I've mentioned; I'm currently tutoring a couple of high school Latin students and then a guy who's trying to get his Ph.D. in Ancient History, who's never taken Latin or any language before now.  It took a few weeks, but he finally found a book that helps him learn Latin.  It's actually not bad - he's reading it really well and it's because it's in context.  It only makes sense - it's better for the Latin itself to drive the instruction instead of the instruction to drive the Latin.  I basically only give him extra information or ask him questions about the forms of verbs/nouns or point out patterns. It's really cool.

This is all that's been going on in my life... I've had a lot of headaches and long days, but I'm proud of everything I've been accomplishing in my post-grad life so far - I just wish it was something more "stable" with benefits, but at the same time I'm glad I'm getting a very diverse set of experience.  The only thing I'm not looking forward to is starting to pay off my loans NEXT MONTH.

So, to recap, I am:

• a Latin teacher at a Catholic middle school
• a curriculum writer, currently finishing my 7th-8th grade Latin curricular guide this weekend
• a private tutor via WyzAnt, mostly Latin
• a tutor at Sylvan Learning Centers
• a soon-to-be substitute 8th grade Language Arts teacher for a maternity leave
• a translator for a master genealogy project
• almost initially certified - I just have to get all my paperwork finished and send it in to the state

To my friends: I miss you all - please keep in touch and keep me in your prayers!