First Semester of Teaching

To all the teachers and professors I have had:

  I am sure you must always be eager to hear about former students who become teachers, and how that first year of teaching is going.  Personally, I was very surprised to find how difficult and stressful teaching can be, and big of a "learning curve" there is. The first day of the semester I had absolutely no experience, and no idea what I was going to say. Oh, and just to make things a little more challenging, the three subject I had to teach, pre-calculus, Visual Basic, and AP Java, were courses were subjects which I had never actually taken a course on. I skipped pre-calculus in high school, and learning computer languages in my free time.  So when I say I had no idea what to do, I am not exaggerating.

  Needless to say, September was not a very fun month for me. Not only did I act to much like a budyd (which made class control difficult) but I also moved very quickly in class, often losing many of the kids. And by many, I mean all.  I seriously considered quitting.

At the beginning of October, my department head got really angry at me, on a personal rather than professional matter. However, she yelled at me and basically told me I needed to slow down in the classroom, and much more importantly, to act more professionally. This meant, among other things, not coming to work with a damned wrinkled shirt.

It was pretty amazing how much easier my job got with a professional mindset. By the end of October, the kids were behaving the way I wanted them to, they understand what I said in class, and my stress levels were pretty low.  Then in November, basketball season started and you'd be surprised how much boys will respect a teacher who can beat them in at one-on-one in basketball.

By the time December rolled around things started going really well.  I teach three section of regular pre-calc, and not only did we finish the semester at the same place as the honors class, but the honors kids who took my tests did worse than my regular kids did, which is not supposed to happen. The computer science classes were a blast, as the kids asked me if they could just design games in class, and thats what we do. The learn at their own pace, ask for homework, and show up to class about 10 minutes early on average(I am not exaggerating either). You can see the first round of games they made at www.sparrowgames.com

Unfortunately, I will probably not get a chance to be there next year, as my wonderful fiancee lives in Seattle, which is an awesome city, and Vero Beach, Fl, is a small town. And she's not really a small town girl.  We love each very much and don't want to a long-distance relationship for more than a year.  I am looking forward to next semester though, as I am sure it will be a lot less stressful than the first semester was, particularly the first month.

Anyway, enough about me, how are things back at school?

Comments

[Teresa Valdez Klein]

Hey Baby,
You are such a badass. I can't tell you how proud I am of all you've accomplished in Florida. I hate the long distance thing - but I'm so glad you've had this opportunity.

I love you,
Teresa