30th Nov 2007
long term sub week 1
I’ve made it through week 1 of being a long term substitute as an elementary strings teacher. It’s the perfect sub job for me and it’s going to be (and already has been) incredible experience for my resume/teaching in the future. The schools that I’m at are wonderful and the kids are ridiculously talented so that’s a major plus.
Teaching wise it’s sort of like my internship experience but I don’t have a teacher watching my every move - it’s just me and the kids. Every now and then I hear the voice of my first mentor teacher asking nagging questions that I begrudgingly realize I should be asking myself. It was pretty humbling when I started a week early and realized I’m responsible for teaching about 50 third graders how to play with their bows for the very first time. It’s crazy but going really well so far!
The really wonderful thing is while I’m on my own and don’t have anyone judging my every move, I can still turn to their normal teacher (who just had a baby boy!) at any time and tell her about what’s going on or ask her her opinion on how to deal with certain things. Since she knows the kids so well it’s extremely helpful to be able to contact her and get practical advice for that situation. We’ve been emailing back and forth all week.
In my internship it was a lot of talking about how to deal with things that “might” happen and being super critical about what I did and didn’t do so it wasn’t the most comfortable situation. This it so much better - I’ve had the basic training so now I can learn on my own terms through experience, but still seek guidance when I really need it most.
I’ll be working with the kids until the end of January and I’m really looking forward to the days ahead with then. The only bummer is I have to get used to getting up early every day - I am NOT a morning person. =P
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