Last week was a tough week at school. It's difficult to go back after you've tasted a few days of freedom*, and, to top it all off, we had an after school meeting one day last week to talk about the reward/punishment economy of education. Which should really be called just the reward economy of education. Because the whole point behind this theory is to give students some kind of reward (besides a good grade) for doing whatever they were supposed to be doing in the first place (like turning in homework). I had composed an eloquent and lengthy tirade in my mind and planned on entitling the post "Stick a fork in me, I'm done," but I decided that, overall, it was a real downer. And, let's face it readers, that's not what I'm all about.
When I haven't been lamenting and/or disparaging the state of public education, the self esteem movement, and/or "No Child Left Behind," I've been wondering whether or not I missed something crucial by not getting a degree in education before entering the field. Don't get me wrong, the powerhouse combo of two English degrees and a Master's thesis on T.S. Eliot and logos is SOOOOOO useful in the eighth grade classroom. However, I know that an education degree would have equipped me for other classroom issues, like behavior management, lesson planning, and, most importantly, self-catheterization.
No, really. This HAS to be a skill they somehow teach future educators. Because, after three months, my biggest question about teaching is: when the hell am I supposed to go to the friggin bathroom?
* "Freedom" here means: sleeping past 5:15, not saying "stop doing that" or "sit in your seat" three hundred times a day, not inhaling half a sandwich in approximately 27 seconds and calling it "lunch," not spending an entire weekend grading papers composed entirely of sentence fragments and/or text message abbreviations...you get the point.
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2 comments:
My best advice for a bathroom break is to make friends with the teacher next door. When it becomes desperate, you step next door and ask them to please stand between your two doors and keep an eye on your class while you speed to the nearest restroom. Not ideal, but the only shot you've got other than holding it until your planning OR eating your sandwich WHILE peeing in that 2.7 min. you have.
Well, you're almost half way through!! In terms of grading papers with sentence frags...isn't that what you did last year for DOCTORAL students? By the way (notice the lack of text message abreviation)the nick-name is to make my name less google-able
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