Life certainly lacks that spice without variety

Ben Guest Assignment: Describe a typical "Day in the Life."


Given the newness of the experience, this seems like a great topic on paper, however, as I sit here and ponder what I would like to write, I'm finding it more and more depressing. I love stability and certainty just like everyone else, but I've never been one for such a structured routine. My life has become so monotonous that I find it difficult to differentiate between the days, each day being just a carbon copy of the day preceding it.


The alarm on my cell phone goes off at 5:00 each morning. I feel exhausted every time it goes off, but it's the same alarm I've had since college and it's familiarness prevents me from hating it. I do the whole bathroom routine, and by 5:30 I'm back in my room to finish getting ready. Emily does everything in her power to slow this process, but I fight her off and emerge fully dressed and victorious. By 6:00 I'm on the road heading north to Sardis, MS, usually thinking about how 38666 is such a fitting zip code for such a dreadful place.


I arrive at the school well before the majority of the staff. I like to have that twenty or so minutes of silence to center myself and mentally prepare for the day. Eventually teachers begin to arrive, and I talk with those around me while we stand on hall duty for forty minutes. The bell rings and it's time for intervention, a period specifically geared towards preparation for the state tests. Since it's not a real class and the kids all know that, I used to provide instruction that was oftentimes less than effective during that time, but now I have a co-teacher willing to provide ineffective instruction every day. I spend the rest of the day teaching biology, and by that I mean that I spend the rest of the day keeping children silent enough to hear what I have to say about biology. It's a constant battle, but in a lot of ways I feel like I'm winning it.


After six periods of biology and a planning period somewhere in there, nine times out of ten we'll have a staff meeting after school. These meetings range anywhere from fifteen minutes to over an hour in length, but they always consist of us getting in trouble for something that should've been taken care of by the administration. The more outspoken individuals among us present ideas and solutions, but it is almost always to no avail. Our administrators either don't undersand what we are trying to say, or our thoughts just fall on completely deaf ears. Rarely do I leave this place happy on a staff meeting day. 


I count myself lucky if I get to leave while the sun is still up, but as winter sets in, doing so is becoming increasingly harder. Either way though, my mood usually tends to drastically improve as I begin my drive home. Once home, Emily and I will usually cook something for dinner, and then we'll settle in to get our work done for the next day. It takes longer than it should, but the shared procrastination and mutual distracting of each other help to break up the monotony of everything in a fairly big way. The best part of my day is when we're finally both done, and sleep can take hold.


If I had to sum it up, my life has become an endless perpetuation of work and sleep. Watching a movie in bed or cooking a nice dinner every once in awhile has been providing just enough refreshing stimulis to avoid going insane. The repetition and routine are pretty awful, but overall I really don't have too much to complain about.

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages...

Ben Guest Assignment: Go and do something that has nothing to do with school and then write about it.

This past Saturday, Emily and I went to the circus over at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN, and it wasn't just any circus; it was the circus. Too be more precise, it was actually a smaller derivative of the circus, but it was still great nonetheless. You see, I'm actually quite particular about my circus experience, and I refuse to go to anything other than a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey production. The small scale circus that toured through Memphis wasn't the three-ring extravaganza my dad used to take me and my brother to every year at Madison Square Garden, but it did the job just fine.

We enjoyed the usual entertainments one tends to see while at the circus, and avoided the overpriced cotton candy. The latter was actually somewhat difficult given the fact that purchase of said circus fare came with a wizard hat, but nevertheless, we prevailed in not trading a paycheck for a small tuft of spun sugar. We watched tigers jump through hoops, tight rope walkers perform daring feats, and clowns fall short of being funny. I think what it comes down to is that I'm better suited to be an astonished eight-year-old child than a grumpy twenty-two-year-old teacher.

At one point I was asked if I wanted a plush monkey wearing a silly hat. I lied and said no. Do I regret my decision? Yes, more so than I'm willing to admit at this point in time. Really though, I'm sure I'll be better off in the end; as one so often hears, "There's always another monkey."

Immediately after the circus had concluded, we grabbed some dinner on Beale Street; excessively extravagant entertainment has a way of working up an appetite. I almost never feel like this, but having to order catfish in a city famous for barbecue had me really questioning my commitment to being a vegetarian. Don't get me wrong; I love meat, but partly out of habit and partly out of feeling some sort of moral obligation, I just choose to abstain from the consumption of it. However, one day I'm going to devour a pound of bacon, and I may or may not feel guilty about it afterwards, but I know for a fact I'm going to enjoy it while eating it.

The roller coaster of adaptation

Dr. Maddox Assignment: Write a paper on a topic of your choosing.

I spent the vast majority of my life living right outside of New York City, quite possibly the greatest city in the country, if not the world. I suppose that one could wrongfully argue that it wasn’t the greatest city in existence, but one could never say that it didn’t offer an enormous wealth of activities, eateries, and amusements. Before moving to Mississippi, everyone warned that I was going to be in for a considerable culture shock, and at the time I brushed it aside. I’m the kind of person that could easily enjoy a slower, more relaxing environment and a biscuit with every meal, so I figured I’d get along just fine. However, I’m six months into the experience, and I can definitely tell that I am most certainly riding the curve of cultural adaptation.

Culture shock describes the psychological, and in some cases physical, reactions of a person staying in a foreign location for an extended period of time. These reactions are the result of some type of conflict brought on by the new location or culture. These conflicts include a wide range of possible problems, such as an inability to easily communicate with the local inhabitants, a difference in ideas and beliefs, and a difficulty with overcoming obstacles inherent to a challenging situation. Adaptation to the new environment typically progresses through a series of four phases.

The first phase is known as the honeymoon phase, and this phase is characterized by a period of elation due to the excitement brought on by the novelty of the situation. This phase lasted all through the summer training offered by the Mississippi Teacher Corps, and extended into my first three months of teaching at North Panola High School. I had met a lot of really great people during summer training, and by the end of the summer, it appeared as though I had become fairly decent at both teaching and managing a classroom. Despite my lack of skills and experience, I started the school year with high expectations, really believing that I could make a difference.

As I taught more and gained confidence, I began to think that maybe this was what I was intended to do, that it was fairly likely that I would be staying here beyond the two years required by the program. However, as the end of October neared, the second phase began to set in. The second phase, otherwise known as the culture shock phase, is marked by a sharp decline in mood and perceived competence. The situation is no longer novel, and problems that were once overlooked and ignored become apparent and irritating.

I began my career at North Panola High School with the idealistic belief that my job was to teach; I quickly learned however that putting up with an incompetent administration was just as much a part of my job as the actual teaching. Working for a school under the control of the state, means having to work an extended workday. Exhaustion and frustration have set in, and the pointless pieces of paperwork and monotonous meetings only serve to compound those feelings. I lack the enthusiasm I had when I started and I feel as though I’m no longer making the difference I had hoped I would make.

The lowest point of the second phase often coincides with feelings of homesickness, depression, and helplessness, but one can begin to move on to the third phase, the adjustment or resolution phase, by accepting the reality of the situation. In writing this, I feel as though I have started the progression into that phase. The fact of the matter is that these schools wouldn’t be dubbed as critical needs if they were being run properly and efficiently. Mississippi Teacher Corps places us in these schools so that we can do our best to fix these problems, and before one can make an attempt at solving these issues, one must first be able to cope with them.

All I can do is do the best with what I’ve got, and in doing so I hope that I can bring some benefit to the school at which I’ve been placed. This past Thursday and Friday I had two really great lessons, something I hadn’t pulled off in a couple of weeks, so things are most definitely looking up. The third phase is characterized by an increase in mood and perceived competency, and in time the fourth phase arrives, the mastering or stabilization phase.

The fourth phase is reached when one has finally adapted to their new location and situation. This is evident by feeling comfortable with the reality of the situation and having confidence in one’s own competency. This phase appears as a plateau, and may stabilize above or below the peak of the initial honeymoon phase. Only time will tell which it ends up being for me, but thus far this experience has proven to be incredibly rewarding, and should I ever actually become great at this, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the fourth phase of my cultural adaptation stabilized at a point greater than it had been when I first arrived in Mississippi. It’s hard to say if I’ll be here longer than two years, but I can definitely say that I am adapting.

Turning reading into comprehension

Dr. Williams-Black Assignment: Read Chapter 3 in Content Literacy for Today's Adolescents, and write a blog response to the reading.


It is well understood that literacy needs to be taught and reinforced across all subjects, but to do this, one must first understand what it means to be literate. It is tempting to think of literacy as merely the ability to read text, but true literacy necessitates a comprehension of that text. Teachers must go beyond just strengthening basic reading skills; they need to be taking their students' reading to the next level, and that involves teaching students to analyze and understand what they read. The payoffs of doing so are invaluable, as students who are actually able to comprehend what they read are at a much greater advantage.

I think the chapter makes a really good point when it talks about the possible natures of discussion. Obviously if the goal is to increase comprehension, discussion most be more focused on the meaning of the text, and less on the content of the text. All too often, teachers get caught up in only worrying about whether or not their students are retaining the information contained in what they are reading. However, without having students elaborate on the text through discussion, one can not be sure if the students are actually understanding what they read, or if they are just merely recalling information. Students should be encouraged to think about everything they read, and this type of analysis and deeper investigation should be a common part of every classroom.

I particularly like the method of strengthening students' abilities to process text at different levels of understanding. The message to take away from the chapter is that students need to understand text beyond just knowing what the words are, and this can easily be done if the students are given the opportunity to make the text relevant to themselves. This is best done by first assessing prior knowledge of the content contained in the text, and then following the text with real-life examples, facilitating the creation of those mental connections that in turn lead to that deeper level of comprehension that we are all striving for.

Personally, I've found that this method usually isn't too hard in the teaching of biology. Since all my students are obviously living and biology is the study of life, the subject matter tends to lend it self well to real-life examples. For the most part, the majority of the concepts found in biology have direct and significant applications in my students' lives, so providing them with these examples readily captures their interest in the material. To build off the content contained in Chapter 3 of Content Literacy for Today's Adolescent, I will need to try other methods of increasing reading comprehension to better ensure that my students are given every possible opportunity to learn

The importance of assessment

Dr. Williams-Black Assignment: Read Chapter 4 in Content Literacy for Today's Adolescents, and write a blog response to the reading.

Two months isn't at all enough time to learn all the ropes of teaching; two months is in fact barely enough time to even learn the most basic skills teaching requires. Unfortunately, that is all the time we are given before we are shipped off and placed in our very own classrooms. As one stands at the front of the room, the training quickly comes back, and some things end up succeeding, while others end up failing. As one becomes more comfortable with the implementation of the basic skills they had learned, the desire to take on more soon arises. For me, the importance of assessing students, as well as the different means to do so, was the first thing I had discovered that went beyond our summer training.

In Content Literacy for Today's Adolescents, Chapter 4 begins by outlining the guidelines for literacy assessment, but although the books specifically talks about the assessments of literacy skills, these guidelines can easily be applied to assessments of any nature. The guidelines are straight forward and informative, emphasizing practices such as using multiple data sources and involving students. Since they were all fairly intuitive, I had already been following each of them prior to the reading of the chapter, at least to some extent.

The middle of the chapter addressed the issue of standardized testing, and then went on to define many of the terms commonly used in the field of assessment. It was vaguely reminiscent of courses I had taken in college, and I began to ponder the pertinence of possessing such knowledge. Knowing the benefits and the drawbacks of standardized testing are definitely applicable since these should have a direct effect on how one teaches in the classroom, but is it really important to know how standardized testing has changed over the last century?

Finally, the tail end of the chapter went on to list specific methods and techniques that can be used for assessing students. The one-sentence summary is a method I have found myself using often in the classroom. With long, complicated definitions in biology, I'll either have the definition displayed on the board or I'll have a student read it from the back of their textbook. Then I'll ask students to create a concise definition that still contains all of the essential information. The activity gets students to think about which parts of the definition are most important, and which can be discarded. After sharing definitions, the student with the best definition is then handsomely rewarded in tickets.

A perfectly silent classroom

It's entirely likely that the incompetence that exists within my school will never cease to amaze me. I had planned a lesson for the day before fall break, one that I had really put a lot of time in to and that I thought was going to go over really well, but due to no fault of my own, I ended up having to show a movie in place of my stellar lesson. Because these circumstances had come on so unexpectedly, I didn't even have a movie in my procession. Thankfully, one of the english teachers had a whole collection of cartoon classics. Oliver Twist may not have been the most relevant movie to the the subject of biology, but one can only do so much with so little.

Normally I would've loved a movie day; movie days mean catching up on work, not having to discipline students, and getting a chance to relax. This however, was anything but relaxing. Our school didn't really think that it was necessary to allow the incoming teachers access to the online grading system we're required to use until the day that grades were due for posting. After a morning spent talking to just about anyone that was in a position to help, I finally got logged into the system, four periods before our entire grade book and final grades were due online. I spent the rest of the day entering grades, and being annoyed at the fact that despite having tried countless times to have an issue addressed prior to yesterday, I was dealing with the ramifications of that issue at the very last possible moment.

I was definitely fairly pissed at the time, but the day wasn't completely awful. Apparently my seventh period class just couldn't appreciate Oliver Twist in such a poorly animated form, so every single student in that class fell asleep, leaving me with an entire class of perfectly silent students. It really doesn't get much better than that. Now all I have ahead of me is a few hours of class, and then tomorrow morning I'll be leaving for a weekend in Biloxi.

Fall break coming just in time

Ben Guest Assignment: Free write.


Dressed in attire far too classy for Wal-Mart, I once again found myself shopping for classroom supplies well after the sun had already gone down. As I was leaving the store, I saw a young couple on the side of the road with a sign that read, "Out of gas." They were real dirty, but visibly content; my first thought was that they were my kind of people. I parked my car again, and then made my way over to them.

They were on the returning end of a very long road trip, and I truly envied the life they were leading. Driving is one of my all-time favorite activities, easily making my top five, and I love traveling to new places. Every now and then I think about just getting in my car and driving off the feelings of antipathy that sometimes accompany this experience, but I never end up doing it since there just isn't any time. If I let myself think about it, it becomes very clear that this job definitely comes at a cost to one's mental and physical health.

They, on the other hand, were free of responsibility, completely removed from the stress that is slowly stealing time away from my life. But I really enjoyed talking to them; it was nice to talk to real people again. After talking to them for almost twenty minutes, I gave them some money and we parted ways. As thankful as they were though, I'm pretty sure the crossing of our paths was more beneficial to me than it was for them.

I needed something new, even if that something new was merely the vicarious thrills of another's adventures. Talking to them also reminded me that fall break is most definitely within reach. I'll get the chance to spend a good amount of time on the road, and I'll be staying in probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. I'm looking forward to it, both the trip and the long overdue break. 

Pretty sure I can make it one more day

Not having a classroom on Monday and Tuesday probably should have been indicative of things to come, but this has been the first week I've actually found myself really not wanting to be in school. I love teaching and I love being in a classroom, and these simple facts alone have been a huge help in dealing with all of the accessory problems that accompany this job. But this week my lessons aren't at all what they should be, and that has made everything significantly less enjoyable.

My lessons aren't falling short due to lack of planning. I've put in a lot of time actually, but the material is difficult and I'm at a loss for fun activities. I've had activities suggested to me, but all of them were so intensive on paper use that I felt obligated to opt out of doing them. Maybe I should've just bit the bullet and printed the sheets; I suppose learning is more important then saving money and the environment. It's too late now though, so it'll definitely be something worth considering for next year.

There's no denying that this week sucked in a big way, but it's not all bad though. Tomorrow is Friday, meaning I have only one more day left on this unit, but more importantly life is pretty great right now and I really don't have a whole lot of complaints.

So here's what they really think of me

Ben Guest Assignment: At the end of class pick one or two classes, and ask them to anonymously answer, "Is the teacher fair?"

I really wanted to get some useful information out of this assignment, so I made it my bell work for all six of my classes and asked them to write a detailed, well-thought out response at least one paragraph in length. The feedback I got was generally very positive, and I was really pleased with the responses I got. Of course there were some naysayers, but those were fun to read too, maybe even more so since I love hearing those kids complain. Provided below is a sampling of the responses I received, ranging from the great to the awful, with all of the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors included.

Coach McAllister is a very fair teacher. His rules and procedures are very simple to follow. He doesn't have favorites; he treats everyone the same way. Whether someone gives a wrong or write answer or not, he still gives verbal praise for trying. Last but not least, his ways of teaching are far more superior than my past teachers. He teaches in the easiest ways possible to make work much more easy for the students.

Yes he is a fair teacher because he is real about what he say about given write assignment out. Make sure that you bring it in the next day. Coach McAllister he is a fair teacher because he wants everybody to do good in his room and pass on to Mr. Cobb class. He might get mad at some people but he just want you to do the write thing in the class.

Yes, I think so, even know you have to ask to follow all the rules. But, that's how it's suppose to be. To tell you the truth, I love this class because he keeps it under control. It is a good learning environment. But, yes I think he is a very fair and cool teacher.

Coach McAllister is a fair teacher because he don't do his grades like ever other teacher. McAllister is a very cool teacher. I love everything about him. The only the is that we have to raise our hand to say the answer or call out the answer. If we raise our hand to ask to go to the bathroom we get a "WA" and that's not fair. But everything else is fair. I like McAllister because if you are missing any work he will let you know or tell you to stay after school on Mon. or Tues. So for everything else he is fair. Coach McAllister is cool. And a loven person. Love Coach McAllister.

Yes I think Mr. McAllister is a fair teacher because he do everything equaly he don't pick no sides or say bad things about his student but I thing I don't like is we work to hard we never get a break can we sometimes watch a movie or play a game

I think that you are a fair teacher. You teach everything fairly and I understand it. I like that there is no talking in your classroom PERIOD. The only thing that I dislike is your bathroom policy. I think it somewhat unfair only one per semester. Beside all of that I am very happy with your classroom and I hope with you as my teacher I will pass the state Biology I test on my first try. Lastly, I like the way you are hands-on with your assignments. 

Coach McAllister is a fair teacher. I just disagree with rule rive. Gum is one thing that I like.

Yes, most of the time. It's hard to get tickets in your classroom. We could like answer a question and you still might not give us a ticket or anything. It's only sometimes when you give tickets out. Some of us even feel discouraged because they have the answer correct, but they don't get any tickets. Not saying that getting the answer right isn't required, but alot of people want a chance at tickets.

I'll say yes and no. I like his class alot because I learn and have fun, but I don't like the fact that we aren't allowed to talk or anything. His class is completely too quiet and that just makes it lame. I love the activities that we do in his class, but I just don't think he's fair enough. I feel that he expects a little too much out of us. We're not college students, so he could at least give us a break. In conclusion, he really is a fair teacher with just high expectations. So uncool.  

Yes and no because he catches me off gard. When I am saying some thing low it's class related. Other than that he's a pretty fair teacher.

Coach McAllister is not a fair but sometimes you can be fair. But your room is not a cool place to be. I hate been in here sometimes.

Mr. McAllister is a somewhat a fair teacher. One reason he is not fair is that we have to stay quiet the whole period, and raise our hand for every little thing. He is fair because he wants us to learn with no distraction but we are teenagers. We need a little freedom. He is also unfair because we can get a writing assignment for anything. I heard that he gave a student a writing assignment for sneezing out loud. He is a somewhat fair teacher. 

No!

Coach McAllister is not a fair teacher because he is boring in his room. If we did more fun stuff in his class he would be a fair teacher. He need to let us go to the bathroom more to.

No Coach McAllister is not a fair teacher. Even though we learn what we are required to learn, we have to raise our hand to do everything like we are elementary students. And another thing is we can't talk. That what makes his class boring and that is why everyone be going to sleep. We can't talk quietly when we are finished with our work, like we do in our other classes. We have to sit in the class like clones or dolls and wait on him to ask us something, like trained parrots or something. That is why I think he is unfair because we don't have any privileges. That is why I dislike coming in here.

On the first day of school I stepped up to the front of my classroom with two goals in mind; I was going to be strict and my classroom was going to be silent. There are times when my room isn't quite as quiet as I'd like it do be, but for the most part I have succeeded in my goals. I do my best to run a real tight ship, and so far it's been working out pretty great. I haven't had any distractions that I couldn't deal with, and the majority of the time my students are on task. The one thing I worried about though was whether or not my management tactics would cause my students to resent me. I used to tell myself that I wouldn't care and that I was doing what was best for them, but even then I knew I didn't want them to hate me. Going through all of the feedback I had gotten really helped to reassure me that I was doing the right thing. It was really nice to see that despite the strict climate of my classroom, students were still having fun and learning. I definitely have to work on winning over the opposition, but at least for now I'm comfortable knowing that I have the support of the majority.

Not enough hours in the day

Ben Guest Assignment: Answer the following question, "What has been your biggest challenge?"

Hands down, my biggest challenge has been finding the time to do everything that needs doing. I've always thought of myself as an extremely organized person, a quality that has hardly ever failed to keep stress at bay, and when need be, I can be efficient to an almost unnerving degree. Despite these characteristics, it seems as though my to do list never grows shorter.

Our school mandates we stay on premises for nine and a half hours each day, forty minutes of which is spent teaching an intervention period where the students are not given grades, but between coming in early to set up and staying after to grade, we're talking about a twelve hour workday. If only it ended there it might not be so bad, but that's just the part of my day that actually involves being at the school. I get home, more often than not after the sun has already begun falling, and I find myself spending four or five hours preparing for the next day, which includes writing up a lesson plan, finding appropriate YouTube videos, and creating all of my materials. Hour after hour passes as I sit trying to think of the most effective way to teach any given topic. Somewhere in all that mess I should really be making time to eat and sleep, but those endeavors always seem to be the first to get cut from my schedule.

Fortunately I really enjoy being in the classroom, so I keep holding on to the prospect that next year should involve significantly less time spent on planning. I know my second year of teaching is a long way away, but knowing that eventually there may be some relief from the incessant work and unrelenting obligations is just comforting enough to allow me to get by.  I don't see teaching ever becoming easy since there's always room for improvement, both in the effectiveness of one's lessons and one's ability to teach, but I can't imagine it ever being harder than it is right now. True or not, I've often found great solace in the thought that if I can just make it through this year, I'll be doing pretty all right.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Cohesion courtesy of Wal-Mart

Drops on a Penny

I taught the properties of water this week, so of course I had my heart set on doing the Drops on a Penny lab to demonstrate cohesion and adhesion. Unfortunately it came as no surprise that our school, having such limited resources, had neither eye droppers nor pipettes. Determined to do this lab with my classes, I thought I'd try my hand at getting donations or discounts from local pharmacies, so on Sunday I drove around in search of a cheap source of eye droppers.

Walgreens initially sounded very promising. The pharmacist told me that only the store manager could give the kind of discount I was asking for, but that he was usually extremely receptive to teacher requests. However, the extended hours my school forces me to keep prevented me from ever getting the chance to meet him. With few other options, I decided to ask over at Wal-Mart.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were very accommodating. As it turns out, Ms. Ruby Johnson, the manger of our local Wal-Mart, just happened to be a North Panola graduate. We spent almost an hour talking about what the school was like in her time and our thoughts on the recent incident that has led to so much unwanted media coverage. In the end, I wound up with a set of eye droppers at no cost to myself.

I briefly toyed with the idea of offering extra credit to any student that wrote Ms. Johnson a thank you letter, but then I decided that doing something nice is much more rewarding when it's not done for a grade. Instead, I merely suggested to my students that if they enjoyed the activity that we did, they should thank Ms. Johnson. Without her help our activity wouldn't have been possible, and they were all well aware of that. No grade was attached to doing a good deed, and yet I had quite a few students turn in letters the next day, some of them written quite skillfully.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Tactics of questionable legality

School Strip Search Being Investigated

Our principal and our school are currently under investigation. A police dog was brought in to perform random drug searches, which in turn led to an entire class being strip searched. Mind you, it wasn't a complete, full on strip search, but it was definitely enough to cause a bit of a stir. Several people are obviously upset about what has occurred, but is this one of those cases where the ends justify the means?

I'm not exactly sure where I stand on the issue. On the one hand, a class-wide strip search is truly an extreme measure to take, quite possibly to the point of being illegal, but on the other hand, I really doubt that there are any students still thinking about bringing their drugs to school after that. Whether it was legal or not, it was a very clear intrusion on the rights of the students, and the general fear in a situation like this is always that once you let someone overstep their bounds, the likelihood of them doing so again may greatly increase. However, the general consensus among the teachers is that despite the severity, the resolute actions of our principal will pay off in the end. As I said before, I'm not sure whether or not I support the actions our principal has taken in this case, but I do know that he has already made a lot of really positive changes in his short time at our school and that if it should come to it, his resignation would be very detrimental to North Panola.

Read and post comments

Scrapbook worthy memories

In accordance with the Mississippi Teacher Corps assignment as laid forth by the Ben Guest guidelines, I present the photographic documentation of not just one, but several, successful cupcake deliveries to the key members of the North Panola High School staff. We hit the secretary, the librarian, and the janitorial staff. You may notice that a Ms. Emily Serkedakis is missing form the third picture, and that is because she did not take as much joy as the rest of us did in the good deed we were doing.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

There is such a thing as too much shopping

Supplies

Say what you will, but spending money is usually one of the best ways to have fun. The activity is made all the better if you get to spend money that isn't your own. After planning six lessons over the past two days I really needed a break, but with a to do list stretching over thirty items long and less than a week to get it all done in, I needed an activity that was both relaxing and productive. I figured spending up my Teacher Corps supply stipend would fit that bill perfectly, however, I was very much mistaken.

Four hundred dollars is a lot of money to spend on school supplies, especially if you've never taught before and you have no idea what you actually need for your classroom. Despite this fact, I spent that money like a champion. After two hours in Office Depot and three hours in Wal-Mart, I had managed to spend almost the entirety of my stipend, and completely exhaust myself. I'm just really glad I won't have to do this again for at least another year. Hopefully it will go much smoother though since I'll know what I'm doing and I'll be able to reuse a lot of what I bought this year.

I purchased everything from three prong folders to prizes for my ticket economy, pretty much all the essentials an inexperienced teacher could think of. If you look closely at the top right corner, above the scissors and to the right of the markers, you may see a small steel item that I could very easily see working its way up to becoming my favorite item purchased. As for the small portion of my stipend that remains, I am reserving it for the vessel I deem best suited for storing and carrying my students' folders; suggestions are not only welcomed, they are encouraged.

Mississippi Teacher Corps offers quite a few benefits and incentives. In my opinion, the stipend for supplies is most definitely one of the best ones. I'd go as far as to say that thus far it's probably second only to the free masters degree.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Poetry is written about sights like this

Right outside my bedroom window there are about a hundred or so dragonflies buzzing around, just doing their thing. As they fly about, their wings are reflecting the rays of the slowly descending sun, casting brilliant golden hues in all directions. It's quite an impressive sight, albeit a bit blinding. I'm finding it very hard to lesson plan with such a spectacle going on.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Time to go whistle shopping

Just a few minutes past eight this morning, I was pulled from sleep by the ringing of my phone. I woke up to Coach Hunter, the former track coach, informing me that I was currently missing a meeting for all of the district coaches and that I should get to the school as soon as I possibly could. One can't help but find the communication system over at North Panola just a little bit lacking.

I had spoken with Coach Hunter earlier, and expressed interest in assisting him with track this year. He was very accepting of the offer, and even proposed starting up a cross country program together. However, Coach Hunter must have taken my willingness to help as his golden opportunity to retire, because when I arrived at the school I was told that I was going to be the head coach of both cross country in the fall and track in the spring.

I foresee this little endeavor being quite a bit of extra work, but it's a challenge I'm really looking forward to. I don't know the first thing about coaching, but running is one thing that I definitely know and there are plenty of books on how to coach. Since I'm starting a brand new program, it's safe to say that I'm going to be coaching the most successful cross country team in North Panola history. Plus, now that I can go by Coach, I no longer have need of going by Captain.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Consider me professionally developed

Ben Guest Assignment: Free write.

The school year hasn't even started yet, but already I've been given a glimpse of the administrative problems all the second years so willingly talk at length about. Rumors of professional development workshops began circulating among those teaching at North Panola less than a week before we were expected to show up for the first scheduled meeting. I use the term rumors since many of us, maybe even most of us, never received an official notification. Seeking out secondhand information pertaining to a series of mandatory meetings that had not been announced was not something I had envisioned. Between calling the school and talking to other Teacher Corps members, I obtained all sorts of conflicting information regarding the workshops; the only way to sort it all out was to just show up the first day.

We sat, or should I say suffered, through three days of seminars on literacy that I can only presume were geared towards either a much younger or a much less sophisticated audience. They were borderline painful, and I took very little from the experience. I remember the chairs being extremely uncomfortable and I remember the speaker pronouncing some very common words in a strikingly unique manner, but aside from that I don't really remember much else. The objective, if one could actually be derived, was to demonstrate various methods that could be used in the classroom to enhance the reading ability of our students. This objective however, was not met in the least.

Outlining the problem of student illiteracy greatly overshadowed possible solutions, but the majority of our time spent there was wasted with impertinent anecdotes from the speaker and a continuous series of trivial complaints from the audience of teachers. The lectures were completely ineffective, but an absurd amount of breaks combined with a very generous compensation made them tolerable.

I plan meticulously and promptness has always been a defining characteristic of mine; I see these two qualities clashing with the attitudes of the administration I'm going to be working with for the next two years. I've come to the realization that Mississippi time runs much differently than what I'm used to, and I'm just going to have to deal with that or go crazy trying.

Read and post comments

Looks like we made it

And just like that, it has finally come to an end. Final grades have been handed out, we saw our last presentation, and all that's left is our end of the summer social. Nothing could have made for a more fitting ending than the bestowing of our official state of Mississippi teaching licenses.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Finally I can get some sleep

Ben Guest Assignment: Reflect on the summer training offered by the Mississippi Teacher Corps.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow will be the very last day of summer training, and oh, what a summer it's been. If I may borrow a quote from a friend, "The days seemed like months, and the months seemed like days." Summer training was the longest, most stressful endeavor I have ever undertaken, yet I can't believe how quickly time has elapsed. I can recall moving in the first day so vividly that it's hard to believe it occurred over six weeks ago, but after that, it's all a blur.

There's no denying that summer training prepared me as much as anything else possibly could have for the start of school in August. In Dr. Monroe's class I learned how to write a lesson plan and the importance of classroom management, fundamentals for anyone going into the field of education. A cornucopia of various workshops provided me with all kinds of advice to help the year go smoothly. I now know I'm going to be using a folder system and a paper grade book. I know that I'm going to be overly prepared for the first day of school, meaning all of my rules will be hung up, my syllabus will be printed, and I'll have a huge assortment of time fillers in case of the almost inevitable holding of homeroom. Role plays taught me that there is a small collection of right ways to handle a situation, but more importantly that there are a whole lot of wrong ways to handle a situation. Many of the role plays felt like what I imagine participating in the Kobayashi Maru test must feel like, attempting to complete an unwinnable scenario, but they were definitely one of my favorite parts of summer training. Last, but certainly not least, being forced to stand in front of a classroom, a real trial by fire induction into teaching, provided me with a forum to gain the voice and presence I'll need in the fall.

Summer training has been an incredible experience, but that's not to say it was entirely without its faults. I found some things to be unnecessary and others to be too long, but since all of my concerns have been brought up anonymously in the eight or so dozen surveys we've taken in the past few days, that'll suffice for the purposes of this post. Teacher Corps is a constantly evolving program, and in time, I'm sure all of its kinks will be worked out.

I'm as ready as I'll ever be for what lies ahead. Of course I'm apprehensive about starting school, but summer training got me exactly where I need to be. Uneasiness precedes all new endeavors, but this is the greatest thing I have ever attempted and thus those feelings of trepidation are magnified accordingly. I'm definitely nervous, but I'm way more excited than I am worried; I think that's just about as good as anyone could ever hope for.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A place to call one's own

For a brief period of time I was beginning to entertain the idea of homelessness. Our search for a house started a little later than it probably should have, but eventually we found the perfect place. The only thing that didn't sit well with me was the landlady. Her husband was quiet and slightly awkward, but she was very firm and persistent on her rules, expectations, and worries upon first meeting her; the fact that she is a teacher definitely didn't hurt her getting her point across either. In an effort to exercise tact, I'll refrain from passing any written judgement about her sanity. Nonetheless, we agreed to rent the house.

Just a few days before we had told them we wanted to move in though, we still hadn't signed a lease or even heard back from them. I had a sneaking suspicion that they had decided not to rent to us out of fear the house would fall apart if four people were using the washer and dryer, one of our landlady's biggest worries. Fortunately Hanna and I just got back from signing the lease, an ordeal which included an hour long reiteration of our landlady's major concerns, everything from washing clothing and throwing parties. I'm just glad we have a place to live, and I'm even more glad that we get 24 hour notice before our landlady can drop by.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A wise Judge Jensen once said...

Ben Guest Assignment: Choose a blog written by a second year, read it in its entirety from first post to last post, and reflect on their experience.

I could've made this assignment very easy for myself; there are plenty of blogs that are of a less than challenging length, blogs that would've taken no time at all to read. However, I chose one of the longer blogs to ensure I would be able to take at least a little something away from it. In an effort to avoid boredom though, I made a point of it to chose a blog I thought I would find amusing. Thus I went with Trevor Jensen's blog, and I hope that won't go to his head.

The most important thing that I took away from reading Trevor's blog was the fact that despite the calm, confident, and engaging personas the second years all carry so well, even the best of them faced some struggles in the beginning. I find it extremely reassuring to know that everyone gets better with time, practice, and experience. Some of us definitely took to teaching quicker than others, but we have a long two years together and that's plenty of time to work towards becoming the teachers we all hope to be.

Between teaching a completely foreign subject, having to act as a stand-in janitor, and a slew of various other complications and unexpected hitches, I'd venture to say that Trevor had one of the more, how should I put this, interesting Teacher Corps experiences. I'm knocking on wood as I say this, but it seems like it can really only get so bad down here. I have no doubt I'll experience my fair share of failures and problems along this journey, and the actual magnitude of that probably hasn't even fully hit me yet, but at the end of the day, at the very least, I'll still be surviving. For the time being, that's something I can take comfort in.

I can relate to many of Trevor's thoughts and beliefs, everything from a deep aversion towards the no smiling until Christmas rule to an appreciation for the addictive quality of southern cuisine. Trevor's blog offered a wealth of information, and I think that living with him this upcoming year will prove to be an invaluable experience. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Attempting to be a real teacher, take two

Ann Monroe Assignment: Videotape a lesson in the month of July and write a reflection that compares your current teaching style to the style depicted in the first videotaped lesson.

My second videotaped lesson was much easier to watch than my first. Where I had been awkward and fidgety, I was now confident and comfortable. One major downside however was the fact that I had taped an extremely boring lesson. Unable to break my endless streak of continual procrastination, I passed up plenty of opportunities to videotape great lessons. By the time I got around to filming myself, all that was left was a lengthy, unbelievably boring review of all the cellular biology we had covered over the last five weeks.

The most notable change in my teaching has been my newfound sternness. I started off being very apprehensive about handing out consequences, ignoring almost everything the students chose to do, but now they have come to expect that there isn't a whole lot I'm willing to tolerate. I can't help but feel a rush when I tell everyone to quiet down and then twenty pairs of eyes immediately look up at me.

At the beginning of the week, a girl asked me why I had decided to be so strict all of a sudden. I lied and told her it was because I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea and start thinking it was summertime when they were still in the homestretch. How funny would it be if my students knew my initial inability to discipline had been due to the fact that it was the very first time I had ever stood in front of a classroom? 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A lesson in southern cuisine

My students already think I'm a freak because I don't eat meat, but they were quick to prevent me from making a huge mealtime faux pas in the cafeteria today. I was about to dig into my rice, the side offered with the chicken I had declined, and before I could even touch the fork to the soggy grains, I was stopped in my tracks. The student sitting next to me kindly informed me that I was doing it all wrong and that "it ain't right without sugar." I asked the class if that was how it was done down here, to which they all enthusiastically responded in the affirmative, several of them even offering me their extra packets of sugar. They were definitely right; despite being a sodden mush, the rice was actually really good. How could it not be though when it was covered in butter and sugar? I'd venture to say that it was probably more desert than meal.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The roller coaster that is Teacher Corps

Last Wednesday as I had mentioned, was an example of a completely perfect day. Thursday however, was not. A lot of hushed whispers about the possibility of a fight occurring after school have been spoken, causing rumors to spread abound. In an attempt to extinguish the quietly simmering embers of rising tension, high school lunch now takes place right in the middle of fourth period. Having to go back to class after lunch makes for a much more controllable dismissal than everyone leaving all at once from the cafeteria at the end of the day. My students were not able to handle such a change.

The first half of fourth period was fine, no surprise there, but the second half, after coming back from lunch, was a huge, chaotic mess. It was the first time I felt like I actually wasn't able to control my class. I handed out writing assignments and detentions like candy on Halloween. It got them in their seats, but not in the state of mind that would allow learning to take place. The bell finally rang, and everyone jumped up. I sat them back down, and to ensure order, I dismissed each student individually. Prior to last Thursday, I had never before felt relief at the sight of an empty classroom. I was beat, no doubt about it.

Friday came, and as soon as first period started I began to rain fire down on my classroom. I let them know how disappointed I was, and I made sure to inform them that I thought it would be a very poor choice to do the wrong thing, get expelled the last week of school, and lose credit after putting in four weeks of hard work. Based on the fact that I probably could've heard a pin drop, my speech was a resounding success. They were silent, and it was awesome. I'm not the kind of teacher that typically needs, or even wants, a soundless classroom, but when that silence marks victory, I'm happy to take it.

Sunday was the Fourth of July, and it was the first time that I actually really missed being home. I'm a big fan of the buddy holidays, the holidays like New Year's Eve and St. Patrick's Day, where you spend time with friends and more often than not end up having indulgent amounts of fun. My friends in Teacher Corps are great, but it just wasn't the same time I would've had in New York. Plus, when you spend the last five years watching fireworks with the same person, you can't help but come to affiliate the two. Oxford put on a pretty good show, but I just couldn't allow myself to fully get into it.

Monday rolled around, and I was back on top again. The days down here range from awful to damn near perfect, but usually fall adjacent to either side of the median. An endless series of ups and downs has been my experience thus far with Teacher Corps, but thankfully the good days outnumber and outweigh the bad. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Evidence of a need for improvement

Ann Monroe Assignment: Videotape a lesson within the first two weeks of summer school and write a reaction.

I'm the kind of guy that hates to watch videos of myself from my childhood. My girlfriend would argue otherwise, but I find them anything but adorable; in fact, I find them downright embarrassing. Those feelings are made so much worse when you can't chalk it up to being too young to know any better. While watching a video of one of my earlier lessons, incredible teacher was not the first thought that popped into my head.

The video showed me just how deceptive improvement can be. I know I've come along way from the teacher I was when I first stood in front of a classroom and taught about experimental design. I'm much more confident and I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what I'm doing, but the video showed me that I definitely have a long way to go. The deception is perpetuated by everyone who observes me, telling me that I'm good or that I've improved by so much. Maybe they're just being nice or maybe they just don't notice because they're not me, but the video showed me a lot. 

I move around the room much quicker than I'd like to, and when I say the wrong thing, I get way more flustered than I should ever really be letting on. I fidget with my clip board too much, but I'm not confident enough yet to give it up entirely; I have no idea what I'd do with my hands if I didn't have a clip board to play with. Most disconcerting is the lack of authority in my voice. My speech is notably more confident than it once was, but it still lacks the authority necessary to truly take center stage in a classroom.

I found watching the video of myself to be a pretty painful experience, but at the same time, it proved to be an excellent tool towards my eventual improvement. I, like many others, am my own harshest critic, so having had the opportunity to see and scrutinize my own teaching can only lead to shaming myself into getting better. I'm all about improving by any means necessary, and this is just one more technique in the arsenal to get me to be the teacher I'd like to be.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Making a run for it

Running used to be really important to me. In fact, it still is, but Teacher Corps has done its damnedest to keep the two of us apart. Any running I have gotten in has been very inconsistent, a sure path to injury, but that's an entirely different story. However, last night I decided to head out for a midnight run right before bed, and honestly, few things in recent memory have felt so good. Not only that, but today was an entirely stellar day. I'm not saying the two are actually related, but there just might be a bit of a direct correlation between going for a run and having an awesome day. I completely knocked my shit out of the park today. I scored one point short of flawless on my formal evaluation today, and nearly perfect, if not perfectly perfect, on all three of my role plays.

That being said, here's how I see it. I'm already used to being unbelievably sleep deprived and I'm definitely no stranger to feeling endlessly exhausted, so I'm thinking that skipping out on another half hour of sleep each night isn't really going to make a big difference in the end. As of right now my plan is to try running before bed, regardless of how late it is, and I'm pretty sure I'm actually going to feel better for doing it.

I just got back from going for a run, and I'm hoping to be as successful tomorrow as I was today. But even if that isn't the case, at the very least I'll be feeling relaxed when my head hits the pillow, and that's huge these days. Running might just be even more relaxing than popsicles.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A welcomed break from 90 and humid

Yesterday it was cold, relatively of course, and rainy. Most would agree that such weather conditions aren't exactly favorable. In fact, to everyone's great disappointment, the weather caused the early cancelation of our big volleyball tournament, but aside from the forced change in afternoon plans, I really enjoyed the cool rain. Usually when we get a summer rain here, the rain comes down warm, sometimes even hot, and only lasts for brief periods of time. It ends just as quickly as it starts, and the immediate evaporation of the fallen precipitation increases the humidity to a level you wouldn't believe. But yesterday was different; instead of feeling like Mississippi, it felt like being home.

I went for a walk, and I didn't mind the skies doing their best to drench me. I ignored those familiar chills of being wet when the wind picks up, and I paid no mind to the uncomfortable feeling of clinging clothing. Standing outside, feeling cold and wet, something I thought I had come to loathe, had somehow managed to become inseparably linked with feelings of home.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

From teacher wannabe to teacher

Ann Monroe Assignment: Read The Reluctant Disciplinarian and write a reaction.

Gary Rubinstein's The Reluctant Disciplinarian is an anecdotal account of the author's transformation from a shaky first year teacher, incapable of managing a classroom, to a teacher with five years of experience and enough tricks up his sleeve that classroom control looks almost effortless. I found The Reluctant Disciplinarian to be a really great read. It was short, quick, and oftentimes funny. Several of its pages had me on the edge of laughing out loud.

But although I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gary Rubinstein's account, it was just that. The book points out that finding ones teacher persona is a very personal journey, and its pages lay out the path that the author had taken. Knowing how the author went from inexperienced first year teacher to real teacher doesn't help me to get there any quicker. Although it was mostly about the author's journey, solid, noteworthy advice was definitely integrated throughout.

Amusingly, a lot of the advice Gary Rubinstein gives was reiterated in Delta Autumn, so I guess I'm not the only one that felt that there was something to be taken away from The Reluctant Disciplinarian. When I start teaching on my own in August, I'll be sure to look the part of a teacher, dressed my best and appearing to be well organized, and I'm going to make a point of it to be instantly decisive, no matter what the question or situation.

Despite the fact that the author was one of the enemy, a Teach for America participant, I enjoyed reading the book. In all seriousness though, I don't hate TFA; it's just not as cool as Mississippi Teacher Corps. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Questioning Strategies

Ann Monroe Assignment: Try a new questioning strategy and write about how well it worked.

I'm a big time procrastinator, so last Friday, when we were given the assignment to try a new questioning technique this week, I was thinking that I would totally get it done… eventually. Wednesday rolled around, the week quickly drawing to a close, and I still hadn't done anything. Not only had I not tried something yet, but by  the time I got home from school on Wednesday I had once again forgotten all about it. Thursday morning came, and as I was walking into school I realized that it was just about my last time to try cold calling, the technique I most wanted wanted to try. But as you can probably guess, it wasn't in my lesson plan and that meant it wasn't going to be happening. On Friday I was doing a review game, so without the opportunity to try cold calling, I had to try the muddiest part of the lecture technique. At the beginning of the period, I told everyone to write down anything that we had covered this week that they were still confused about and that if we had time after the game we would start to go over some of it, and if not, I would cover it all before the final. I didn't get a chance to reteach any of the things they were confused about, but my review did cover everything on the test and I definitely learned something from trying the new technique.

My fear was that I would get twenty-five different responses as to what the students were confused about since everyone learns and absorbs information differently. To my surprise, there were only a few topics that had eluded them, a collection small enough in size that it could be retaught in probably less than twenty minutes. I guess that's assuming though that they didn't underrepresent what they were confused about. In the future I'll stress that they shouldn't put their name on it, so that hopefully the anonymity will ensure a student doesn't purposefully not write something to avoid embarrassment. Despite the fact that I waited until the absolute last minute and even though I didn't use the method I was most excited to try, I still learned a couple things from the whole experience and I'm most likely going to try the technique again. I may even try cold calling, despite the fact that it's no longer required. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend