Teachers Lunch

Man today was something that I was proud to be a part of, the teacher lunch at Whitley County High School. Today I felt as if in some way I was part of the school, I know that I have been there going on 4 months but today I felt a part of the network. I sat and ate with the teachers and the student teachers and the front office staff. I have enjoyed my placement at WCHS, I really have. This has been the hardest thing that I have done to date, I have worked hard and have felt out of place and now as it is coming to an end I might even miss it. I am not real sure that I will miss the mounds of paper work but I will miss the kids as well as the teachers. I have made some friends with the staff here and I am looking forward to finding a school to call home. I am not sure if I will be able to fins a job here but I understand what it is like to be part of a school. We are all on the same team, school colors are important, you think that it is just a sports things but it is much more than that. The people at WCHS have made me feel at home, they have opened their school to me and for that I am grateful. It has been eye opening and I am looking forward to my next step.

When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.
Ethiopian Proverb

Presentations

Today we continued our work on PowerPoint, in my second period class we have been working on creating PowerPoint, this has been fun the interesting to see. Today we started another PowerPoint, the first time we worked in groups but this time they will work alone. The students in the class understand what they are doing, they best part of today is that I have one FMD student in my class that only sits in the class and types home row keys. Today as I was walking past him he said do you think it would be OK if I did this? I said what, what do you want to do? I like this can I do this today? John wanted to do the same work as the others in the class, he wanted to talk about what he was going to do over Christmas, since this is what the PowerPoint presentations will be over this time. I think that this is awesome, I was shocked when he asked, it kind of caught me off guard but I am looking forward to seeing the outcome.

The more you say, the less people remember.
Francois Fenelon

Job Hunting

I was talking today to people in the school about jobs, how they got their job how they would go about looking for a job in today's market. It is very interesting to hear all the different ideas from all the different types of teachers. The coaches say not to worry about it, they say that I will have no problem finding a job. The female teachers say make sure that you are not over qualified or they will look over you and take somebody that will cost them less and the front office say, well your field is not really open right now. I am glad that I have started thinking and talking about this with people who have gone through this type of thing, I am sure that all have it correct at least a little bit or somewhat. I want a job, I want to work, I want to get settled and finish the KTIP, how about you?

The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.
Seneca

Sent Away

Today I had to listen to my students talk about one of their classmates that just got sent away. This was not the first time that this happened, he was sent away before but only for a week now he is going to be gone till February. Curtis is the student's name, he was my favorite student, he was always smiling, we got along good, there was just something about him that was interesting. I talked to Curtis on Monday and he said that he had to go to court and more than likely he was going to get sent off, he said that his grades were really bad and that the judge was going to send him off. I have never had to deal with that, I never even heard of someone getting sent off when I was in school, this is all new. as Curtis was talking to me one of the other students in the class overheard him and said that he also had to go to court. So I had two students in the court system on the same day, I talked to them about it but I was blown away, I was just dumbfounded, this was all new to me. I tried to tell them that this was not good and it should not be a habit of theirs, they need to break the trend and figure it out and get back to being a teenager. What is going on these days? How do you deal with that?

Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow.
Doug Firebaugh