3 posts tagged “education”

I'm sitting in my darkened apartment listening to a random iTunes rotation.  Some of the newest words for thought includes recently recorded poetry from a friend of mine.  I promised him I would listen to it & I feel satisfied that I've finally sat down to critique and enjoy.  It must be my birthday with all of the days off I'm getting this week.  I came home not too long ago after browsing through the shelves of a bookstore that's set to close down very soon for books that need to be read.  After finishing my first complete book in forever I feel as if I can actually focus even if only for short periods on the bus ride to work in the mornings. 

I expected more students to be absent because that seems to be the inevitable outcome of half days, but I went through my normal schedule.  There's a few points of reflection, most of them stemming from one particular incident.  It's frustrating for me to see a kid who can be smart, playful and helpful, become so fascinated with a more violent means of getting points across when things don't go his way.  This kid and I often go head to head when we have conflicting views.  He often feels that he isn't respected and that no one likes him.  All empty threats and manipulation aside, I hope we can find a way to get him on a more positive track.  It's discouraging to anticipate these things in the early stages of elementary school, but at least there may be a better chance of stopping something before it gets too out of hand.

Proper education is a challenge. I'm browsing through this book I borrowed called Conscious Discipline.  It's supposed to help with classroom management.  Each attribute like empathy, assertiveness and empowerment is practiced in the classroom, one new one per month.  I don't have a classroom or the luxury to implement things one at a time but I'm hoping to glean some relevant information on how to communicate better with others.  It was always my own pitfall, something told me long ago that it's better to protect yourself from potential rejection and/or anger than assert yourself in a more direct manner. Call me a nut but perhaps my employment at this particular school will allow me to confront and maybe remedy some baggage by working with the age group where I acquired my own afflictions.  Make sense?

I stopped being enthusiastic about my birthday a long time ago.  I don't remember the last time I really planned a party for the occasion, I think it was in 4th grade. I appreciate all the good wishes, however, and I continue to reflect even more about the recent turn of events. August has been a heck of a month.  I came back from Morocco aware that I had to start over in certain areas, but uncertain how that would really look like.  In my head I got to think about earthly matters of money and work in a more spiritual purposeful sense.  It's not just about making money.  It never really was that way, but sometimes we try to get our needs met through all the wrong channels. I asked for choice of direction and I've been given choices. 

I spent much of my day working on lesson plans.  I've worked with children in some capacity before and have been asked to create lessons, but frankly I didn't know what the hell I was doing.  My lessons tended to be more of an improvisation session with a loose idea for instruction.  I enlisted the help of a friend of mine who was doing her grad work in Education and brainstormed some ideas.  Being the ol' global studies major I've decided to give a mini-cultural lesson centered around the question of "who am I?" You can incorporate stories, games, songs, art, whatever.  After some of this started coming together I got very excited. It's a rare moment for me.

There's more planning to do and more to put together. Tomorrow's the first day of teaching.  Thankfully I don't have to do anything until the afternoon.

"Wow, someone who's nice.  Minneapolis is usually full of a**holes" 
I was standing on the bus stop and mouthed hello to a man with a plaid shirt and baseball cap out of reflex.  He immediately engaged in conversation and started complaining about city culture as well as the "gay coffee shop" he was heading to for a danish.  Too much cattiness apparently.  He scurried off to another bus.  Another woman came up to me asking how to get to a school she was heading to.  She was waiting for about an hour.  Incidentally, we were heading to the same destination and suddenly I was given motivation for going in on a Saturday morning.

It seems like I found a new vocational direction; I've been thrown into the gravity of a first year charter school set to open on Monday.  The founder, in all of his knowledge, is working hard on producing numbers. Charter schools typically have a certain success rate.  Part of it is getting enough kids, the other is academic success and community backing.  I don't know specifics, but I imagine over time some of the politics will become more clear.  This relationship started with scooping ice cream for a family informational meeting last week. Since then, I've been the symbol for ice cream of sorts around the school, at least to the guy who works at the church the school is sharing space with.  I've only been there for a short period of time, but I'm already comfortable with the people who work there.  It's just a stressful time to come in, teachers are hurrying up to prepare their classrooms and attempting to avoid complicated politics.

I'm re-evaluating my ideas about money and the type of work I want to do. Over the course of a month I've been given these little chances just to make money. Go for corporations some say. Apply for this job just because they're hiring, says another.  I needed money, but I couldn't follow through on something that didn't look sustainable. I'm starting to consider doing Americorps full time.  The pay isn't great, but I think I can work with it. The more I talk with some of the staff at the charter school, the more it seems like a valid avenue. It does take a village to raise a child and for what it's worth, I feel a small investment in seeing how this charter school runs during its first year.  The window of opportunity is there, it's a matter of making a decision to take it.  I'm also taking on another challenge, manning my own classroom of 25 or so little kids.  It's only for an hour a day, but its teaching experience and a potential confidence booster for openly sharing knowledge and providing loving yet firm discipline. I can come up with whatever I want. Two week probationary period.  The challenge is on.