Friday, December 11, 2009

Boring Friday night after...

I had a fun/stressful day. Although it seems completely contradictory, this is how my days at the high school tend to be. Fun because instead of classes we got to watch some people from the raptor center come in and talk about the birds. They brought in three, two different types of falcons, and one hawk. One of the guys that works at the raptor center also volunteers at the high school, and had managed to set this up for free!!! for the school. It was really interesting and informative...and, to most of the teachers surprise, most of the students got really into it and were mostly quiet! They even asked a lot of questions, which is a hard thing to do when you barely speak English... Of course, toward the end, the minority of the students that were being loud finally took over, and it was a mess trying to get them all to quiet down, because the noise scared the birds, then the birds scared some of the students who in turn made more noise and scared the birds more! It became a never ending cycle, so we ended it a bit early due to bird poop everywhere (that apparently happens frequently when they are scared.
After that we had a "fun" recycling project/game thing in the gym. I'm not exactly sure what it was all about, and I don't think that the majority of the students knew either. It turned into free time for all of them because most of the teachers decided to take a break at the same time. There were two volunteers (including myself), three teachers, and the principal to the hundred students crammed in the gym. We definitely lost that battle.
After that, I joined in a "talking to" with the teacher that I help out with, and a student that was being very disrespectful. I learned that she got kicked out of her old high school for starting a fight with another girl. It has been recommended that she see a counselor for anger management.... However, the reason that she started this fight was because the other student called her a terrorist day after day, and she finally couldn't deal with hearing it anymore. Who is the victim here? She obviously didn't deal with the situation in the most civil way, but then again, the civil way doesn't get the point across either. I am not saying that she was in the right, but I can definitely understand getting angry for that.

Well, now I am just sitting here and reflecting on my day. Thinking about what I want to do with my life. I almost feel the calling to teach, but am held back because I don't think that I would be able to deal with things like this day after day. I am so exhausted after just four hours, let alone a full school day. I really have a new level of respect for teachers. I already respected them a lot, but now... just to have that many kids to feel responsible for....

1 comment:

  1. Wow! What a day! I agree with you about this student that is angry and acted out from how she was being treated. In a big sense, she too is a victim. It would most likely benifit her to have some counsoling to help her deal with her feelings about all of this and maybe to teach her better ways to deal with being bullied like that. Very sad. It makes me want to go slap that person who was saying that to her! :)

    You will find what you want to do...all of these experiences you have will lead you there. Just remember, it's okay to try something and change your mind down the road. I think you would make a great teacher. And yes, it's a lot of responsibility but from listening to those that teach and really care about their students, a very fullfilling line of work! XX

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