Friday, February 5, 2010

A Hectic Day Indeed

Wow, what a day this has been. In my meeting with my coordinator, I talked with her about how things were starting to look up a little bit with me and my CT. I felt like we were making strides to increase the time we spend planning and the amount of support and guidance she gives me in my journey through student teaching. No sooner than I had this talk with my coordinator did things go completely down hill. First off, her husband and daughter showed up 30 minutes before the end of the day, completely disrupting the class, of course. She was totally disengaged from what was going on in the classroom because she was totally immersed in conversation with her family.

At the end of the day, one of my students punched another student in the back. As this was the second time I talked to this students about keeping her hands to herself (not to mention the fact that the principal spent the entire lunch recess talking to all fifth graders about respecting each other), I immediately wrote her up for a level 2, which requires intervention by the principal. While all of the commotion was going on, my CT did absolutely nothing to intervene. So I walked the rest of the class down to go home, came back to get the girl who hit another student, and took her straight to the principal. All the while, my CT did not intervene once to see what was going on. I was all alone in this process and it was my first time every doing it.

I needed her support and she wasn’t there. She left soon after I got back to the room (not sitting down with me like we had planned to discuss my writing unit or my science plans like we had discussed). Then she tells me “Don’t stay here all night”. Easy for her to say and she doesn’t even stay the time she is required to be here! Some of the teachers talk about how I am always the first to arrive and the last to leave each day, but what other alternative do I have? If I don’t come early and stay late, things won’t get done. I cannot count on her to support me and pick up the slack as I transition into “the teacher” in the room. I know this was a huge venting session for me but it feels good to release it all. One of my goals for next week was to find something outside of school to engage in to release stress. After today, I need to find something!

1 comment:

  1. That's so frustrating. I am sorry your CT is like that- it always makes me wonder why people like this volunteer to be CT's- it's going to be more work so you have to be ready for it!

    Honestly, I prefer teaching any day over student teaching. I got along with my CT, but it was so much more difficult having to meet all the expectations for student teaching and not being on your own schedule at all. My CT stayed until about 5 every day, I was so exhausted and done by that time of day. Now, in my own classroom I get to work 2 hours before the kids and leave right after school. That works better for me and so I get to do it. Soon this will be over and you'll have your own class and it will be much better :)

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