No Talking Means Speak in Spanish

1/21/09
Today was the first day that I had most of the control of the class. It was very hard to switch from being a supervisor to someone they need to listen to. There is a group of boys that always always talk and goof off. Today I told them at least 20 times to stop talking. It was especially important in the hall. The funny thing is, to them no talking meant ok go ahead and talk, just in Spanish. One of these days I’m going to say something in Spanish and catch them off guard. I’ll just have to practice beforehand so I don’t mess it up. How embarrassing would that be? I’, hoping tomorrow will go better. Before I start teaching I am going to talk to the class and explain to them that I am a teacher just like Ms. P and I deserve the same respect they give her. When I say no talking that means silence. We were yelled at three times walking into the library today. To the classes defense, it was the time they were most quiet. They walked in whispering to each other and this overbearing Librarian corralled my class and yelled at them for being rude and disrespectful for talking. When we came back later for computers and typing she did the same thing. It’s one thing for a teacher to discipline a class but when the teacher thinks it’s appropriate behavior, don’t over step her. You’re a librarian! Scare kids to come to the library and they will not want to come and read books. All the teachers feel this way and I think it’s hilarious. I took control of the class most of the day because my teacher was busy with grades. The school started a new program this year to record grades on-line. I think it’s gradespeed. All the teachers today were trained on how to use it and grades for the whole quarter are due tomorrow morning. How are they to enter all the grades by tomorrow? The program seemed like a waste of time since most teachers already keep a written record of grades. Next year the school is adopting a new program again so the teachers will once again have to learn it. Anyway to allow my teacher to enter all her grades, I took over the class. Tomorrow is my first supervised lesson I will teacher. I have taught in front of Ms. P but not for my TU supervisor. I’m a little more intimidated by it because we are given a letter grade based on how well we teach. It could be a good day or a bad day depending on how many kids take their medicine for the day, who ate sugar for breakfast, or who didn’t sleep much the night before. Wish me luck!