Saturday School

On my way to school I was feeling pretty good. I was going to do a good job today. I felt it, I was reading on the train. The chapter was really good and really felt good reading as I was going to work. Before I got to work, I had realized that I didn't know what time I started and who I was working with. My schedule seems to always change.

When I arrived, I noticed the note that was under the plastic covering in my desk. It told me my schedule for the day. Which gave me relief since I already missed the first period when I arrived. But I still had to wait around for another hour before class began. The first class that I had today was 7th K. I felt pretty good going in, but didn't feel that good coming out. I was partnered with the former English Department chair. She's a nice lady and extremely helpful, but in this class we were both struggling to get control of the class. You know 7th graders will be 7th graders. I altered my teaching style a little because I will only see this class once and only teach them once this month, possibly this year. So, I tried to maximize what I did, but it seemed really scattered. As I was leaving the class, it was very discouraging and I had to recollect myself for the next class, another 7th grade. So, as I was sitting at my desk thinking about what to do next and how to fix it so the next class won't be as bad as the last class.

I modified a few things and the approach that I did. When the next class was about to begin, the other teacher came up to me and said that 7th grade is always the hardest. Don't be so hard on yourself, but she said that in Japanese as we were heading to the next class together. I had hoped that my plan was to work out better in 7th R. And IT DID! I went with a different approach and the students loved it. They were very responsive, and participated. They were WAY more controlled and were receptive of the material. It was such a great relief that it worked out, because the other classes were shaky on the material, even though we've been working on it for 3 weeks in the other class with CP. Everything went very smooth, that I finished even before my time was up. The other teacher was very surprised at the results, I'm sure, but I didn't have a chance to ask her about it yet. I just wished at all my classes were like the last one. I stayed around for another few hours to help around with English tasks and took off early. I got home and then just relaxed a bit since I wasn't needing to do anything.