Chaos

Teaching is CHAOS.

I think that I have not realized this until recently because of the laid-back nature of my last teacher.  It just seems that there is so much going on in my placement currently.  I am moving into taking over writing and math this next week.

What does that mean?  That means that I plan 9 lessons for the week.  Within those 9 lessons, I am planning centers for 4 of them.  What does it mean that I am planning centers for 4 lessons?  That means that I am planning 3 activities, lessons, or games for each center.  Let's make that 12 mini-lessons.  On top of that, in mathematics there are 2 different levels- low, medium, and high.  I need to differentiate each center to the specific level of thinking.  So for math, lets take those 9 mini-lessons (the other 3 mini-lessons are for writing) and multiply them by 3 because I need to do 3 different activities in order for all the students to benefit from them.  That's 27 mini-lessons for math, 3 mini-lessons for writing, and 5 full length lessons.  (At least I've proved that I've got math going for me!)  All of that is done simply for taking over 2 subjects.  And I did not include the fact that I am reviewing my cursive, my narrative writing skills, and creating homework for these subjects as well.  Planning is CRAZY.

CHAOS doesn't stop there.  The students are chatty and all at different levels.  My lesson today felt very choppy because of this.  Some of the students needed the review and a short walk through multiplying by 0 and by 1.  Other students in the class have their multiplication by 9 memorized, so of course, these students continuously shouted out, "This is SO easy!!" and the answers to the problem as soon as it came up on the board.  It's hard to feel in control of the class when everyone is talking and basically running the lesson.

Students are not only at different levels academically but also in their emotions and maturity.  This causes CHAOS in the activities and lessons that would normally be fun and engaging to the class.  One student refuses to do things--so the teacher has to drop everything that she is doing in order to solve a discipline issue.  It doesn't stop there.  The student still refuses to do what she asks.  Another student can be referred to as having frequent bursts of energy.  Those bursts of energy may include hitting himself in the face for no reason or yelling loudly or falling on the floor to be funny.  While honestly sometimes its funny even to me, it is often a distraction to the class.  Thankfully, this week my teacher has been taking care of these things while I am teaching.  However, in a few weeks, I will be in charge of this as well.  I will help one of the students fill in his discipline plan every day after school.  I will send emails home to parents who need to be notified about their child's behavior.  I will pull the student in the hallway and send them to the office if necessary.  I'll be honest in saying that I have very little practice with this.

These are only a few things that teachers deal with daily.  Be thankful for teachers.  They do so much that is unrecognized, and despite what some say, their job is hard.

Even though this sounds like a depressing blog post, it is not.  I am thrilled to be pursuing teaching.  I'm thrilled to figure out how to make this work, and I know that after much more practice I will get the hang of things.  I am especially thankful for the opportunity to be learning some of these things (such as planning, discipline, and supplementing materials) before I get into my own classroom.  I am also thankful to experience a cultural classroom and learn from an awesome teacher.

The CHAOS of teaching is one of those amazing paradoxes that are so hard for me to wrap my mind around.  What a challenging but beautiful opportunity to be teaching children, seeing them grow, and even learning from them.

Teaching is CHAOS.

Praise God for such a beautiful CHAOS!