I have been MIA for the past two weeks on blog-world because well, I have been working 11 hour days at school and then usually another 2-3 hours at home. Leaving the house at 6AM, getting home at 6pm. Sound like fun? Not so much. I miss my husband, I miss cooking delicious meals and I don't remember what it's like not to be working on school stuff. (Remember, we go to bed at 9, so when you finish dinner after 7, that doesn't leave much time before it's time to get ready for the next day.)
Anyways, I am FINALLY done with 6 weeks of lesson plans!!! Praise God. I worked until 6pm last night (so glad my school neighbor Kim was there to keep me company!) and though there are some finishing touches, I am pretty much ready for my maternity-leave sub.
This process has been so difficult because I usually plan ahead by a week or two, not two months ahead. I truly believe it is important to cater the pace of my lessons to the progress of the students... but when you are going to be gone for 6-8 weeks, you need something... So needless to say, it has been a struggle planning for all four of my "preps." We have a brand new curriculum in French 1 this year so I have to make everything from scratch, which is a lot of work... and in a language class, you typically do at least 4-5 different "activities" each day (which could include presentation of content and practice)... but you also need to try to hit all four "areas"- reading, writing, speaking and listening...
Why do I have to change activities so often? Oh, that's because teaching high school these days is actually like teaching elementary school. Seriously. The average attention span (especially of freshmen) is probably about 3-5 minutes long.
Let me just share a few moments of my week, all from French 1 (which is mostly freshmen):
student: "How do you say __inappropriate word__ in French?" me: "I will not tell you that. See if it's in the dictionary." student: "It's in here!!!!!!" It says "taboo!" You are a "taboo!" me: "Ummm no. Taboo means it is not socially acceptable to use that word... that is just the dictionary telling you that... the real definition would be the word after the word taboo." student: "Oh... hmmm... what?"
me: Sit down. Keep your hands and feet to yourself."
me: "Yes, that answer is correct, however you did not need to add the English word 'butt hole' underneath your answer..."
me: "___, put away the ipod." "____, stop texting." "____, put away the cell phone." "____, put away the ipad." "___, take out the ear bud." (latest trend: leaving one ear bud in apparently makes you super cool.)
student: "___ is taking a video on his ipad." me: walks over to student, says nothing, pushes buttons to stop recording, open video and put video in trash. Student's mouth drops open. me: "what, think I don't know how to use an ipad?" student: "what if I wanted that video?" me: "for what?" student: "ummm for my funeral, so I could remember what high school was like?" me: "seriously?"
student: "Can I touch your belly real quick?"
me: "Where is your packet for this unit?" student: "Oh, I'm just writing everything down on the one from the last unit." Because that makes sense...
Comments from my upperclassmen:
"Do you want me to fill up your water bottle?"
"Let me get that marker you dropped on the floor."
"Can I help you pass out papers?"
"How are you feeling? How is the baby?"
"Seriously, I want to babysit for you."
"Are you so excited to have a baby?"
Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into the life of a high school teacher :-)
I admire you so much, Jen. It takes a lot of courage, talent, and patience to be a French Teacher (or any kind of teacher for that matter). I could never do it! <3
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