and so it begins...

For the past three weeks I have been observing, working one on one with students, grading research papers, and sitting quietly in a corner chair while I watch my cooperating teacher's teach. It has been the opposite of thrilling. Which if you look up the word thrilling in the dictionary the antonym is BORING. Boring is a very good and accurate word to describe these past three weeks. I can only grade so many papers on alien abductions until I've fully convinced myself that they are real... sad story. Observing is not exciting, but it has been somewhat insightful. I now know which students texts, which students sleep, and which students talk nonstop. I feel like I have the upper hand going into teaching. At least I thought that until I was told that most of my classes have around 38 students. You do the math: 1 of me against 38 of them. Nerve racking? Yes. Exciting? Of course! Doable? Completely.

Here are some pictures of my classroom. I will be standing up there filling student's minds with topics of Animal Farm, the Russian Revolution, leadership, Julius Caesar (wish me luck), vocabulary words (useless words like piebald, and witticism). In another classroom I will be teaching students about health... luckily I have a little more knowledge on that topic :)

And this is what I will be seeing each day: smiling faces (or should I say bored faces, with the facial expression of "I am bored to death") of 38 students. There are more desks off to the side in each direction.

The good news is that I am very excited to start TEACHING! Mainly because I will not have to massage my rear end after sitting all day... and will probably have to result to massaging my feet from standing all day (a decent trade off I would say). On Monday I will have complete control of the classes. Wish me and the students luck! We will need it :)