And I couldn't be more excited. Although week 2 did not hold a fist fight, it did hold other stories that tried and tested my patience, my determination and my will. There are just a couple of highlights that I will share and then I want to write about my initial opinion into OUSD and just why this job is so challenging.
I continue to get new students everyday. Now, for some this may not seem like a big deal but in my class, each new student adds a new dynamic to the class, a new personality for me to get used to, another student to figure out what they can and can not do, and another worry of who they will get along with and who they won't. The last two students who joined my class are both out from juvenile hall. The good is they are on parole and have to be on their best behavior; the bad is they scare me, a little bit.
My favorite student (being sarcastic) continues to test me for the 4.5 hours he is in my class. He has the most ability in my class and should be in general education classes but is in my class because of his behavior. When I have the opportunity to work with him 1 v 1 or talk with him 1 v 1, he is great and gets exactly what he should and should not be doing. But, Wednesday and Thursday I had to kick him out of class for inappropriate behavior, language, gestures and on Thursday a female student and him got into a verbal argument. Bizarre! I am still waiting for the one student who has been in the class in the past to show up-he is a handful and will completly change the class dynamic...he was on campus on Friday which makes me think he may come on Monday-I need to get the F**k ready.
But all in all...we are learning. Maybe not as quickly as I would like and not as effective as it could be, but we are learning. And I show up each and everyday to teach and be there for the 18 kids in my class. I am still constantly looking for new techniques and new ways of doing things, but as my Mom reminded me, I have only been teaching for 10 days.
OUSD is an interesting place. The services or lack thereof are absolutly incredible. One such story is about textbooks. If you are familar with the Williams Law, you know that it promises students the right to have a textbook in every class, to have the classrooms clean and so forth. So, people come around to the different schools and check the classes to make sure that there are textbooks for every student. Well, Friday afternoon my principal called an emergency meeting and proceeded to tell us that we just got the shipment of books in and that we need to disperse them to each classroom and then Monday afternoon they will take the shipment away. So, OUSD has hired a man who drives around a van transporting textbooks to drop off at schools before the Williams people arrive and then he picks them up to take them to the next school. Illegal? YES! Crazy? YES!
There are many moments during the day where I challenge what I am doing, but I am growing tough skin and realizing that I am doing the best that I can. And I can only get better. So, here's to the next 10 days of teaching....
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