It started on a snowy day, January 7th, I had an interview for an elementary school art interim position. The interview went wonderfully and I was signed and sealed for 6 weeks as a REAL art teacher (at this point I am on cloud nine).
I was very lucky that the school is smaller (around 450 students). I got to meet the teacher I would be taking over for and shadow her for two days. She so wonderfully wrote out 4 weeks of lessons (leaving me with just 2 weeks to create myself) with examples and very good descriptions of how the lesson was to be completed.
The first week!
Well the first week started out slow since we didn't have school Monday because of snow. So my first real day was Tuesday. Tuesday is a loooonnnnnggg day. There are no planning periods ( for those of you who are not teachers these are those wonderful breaks without students) so the day is back to back classes. Tuesday went pretty well. Wednesday comes along and the first class comes and not even 5 minutes into the class I have a student acting up. He told me he wasn't scared of me...HAHAHA I thought, then I threw out "Ok do you want to go to the office?" and you know what for the rest of the class he was silent. Then, Thursday comes along...every class for the day was wonderful, I was having such a wonderful day then my 5th grade class (which of course is my last class of the day) comes and I was so proud because they were staying at a decent level of talking and working hard on their project. But of course with 20 minutes left of class I turn around and see two boys pushing each other needless to say I had to fill out two discipline reports and on my first week!!! Well at least Friday wasn't bad.
Week Two:
Well once again we had snow days...So no school Monday and Tuesday. So my second week started on Wednesday and went very smoothly for the whole week and Friday I only had a half day because I got to go to the Arts Intergration Workshop at the board, which was such a great experience. So YAY for week 2!!!
I am currently 2 and a half weeks into the job. We did not have school Monday yet again but this time for an actually holiday, President's Day. So I have yet to meet my Monday classes. So far I have enjoyed all the lessons the teacher has left and so have the students until today! The kindergarten lesson today went terribly! I was very upset with the class and how the project turned out. I rarely ever lose my cool with a class but today I did. I had kindergarten students stepping on and ruining a 4th graders work and it make me sooooo upset. So needless to say I am trying to brainstorm on a solution to the lesson that went horribly. Adventures in the art room are sometimes very stressful and other times very rewarding...I am wondering what tomorrow will bring!
