This week I have learned a great deal of patience in my teaching sphere. In my English class I was able to read and grade essays for three straight periods and do the same grading a test in my Health class. At times this seemed very trivial and boring to say the least but it was really great for me to experience what teaching will be like. And after I had an attitude adjustment I began to really enjoy reading through the essays. Granted they were all very similar but it was fun to see what they had to say. Even if the grammar was terrible and the language was far too casual for an essay I enjoyed finding the diamonds in the rough. The essays that weren't perfect but for that specific student, were incredible work. Students are so varied in their likes, dislikes and abilities and I loved being able to get to know them a little better through their writing.
I have been perplexed on how to teach something that I am not passionate about. This may be because of the mere fact that I have been asked to teach some classes in P.E. and in Health where I am supposed to use my teachers information and I don't necessarily enjoy some of the activities within the lessons. I know this is something that will be very different once I have my own class but it has been a challenge trying to figure out how to be excited about teaching mental illnesses when I can't do it in an engaging manner. This has definitley been food for thought lately.
My patience has begun to get stretched very thin as of late. My P.E. students are getting used to having me around and are giving me a lot of attitude during class. This could be simply because I am a student teacher but I am learning how to have an 'appropriate' attitude back to them. What I want to do is yell at them and ask them why they think their allowed to be a brat but clearly that wouldn't be an appropriate way to handle the situation.
The higlight of my week was watching one of my students rise above and be a good example. This student is an 11th grader and is surrounded by a lot of younger students in our P.E. class. He is popular and athletic and gets along well with everyone. There are days when he is defiant but I think it is more the 'cool factor' than anything. While playing sideline soccer this last week I was truly impressed by his kindness. I have another student in the class who is extremely autistic. He hardly ever participates in the activities and enjoys walking rather than being in contact with any of the students. On this particular day, this student started playing sideline soccer. There was an area that got really congested with students and he ended up falling down. I was nervous as to what type of reaction this would elicit. I have seen this student begin crying and run away simply for forgetting to dress down so I was nervous as I was the only one in the gym with my class. This other student, my cool 11th grader went and helped him up and made him feel like it was perfectly normal and that he was proud of him for playing. I was so impressed and I will forever look at this student differently. I hope that I can find ways for all of my students to be advocates for one another and look for ways to be examples of kindness. I will always learn new and wonderful things from my students.
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