A Day in the life of Ati Teacher No.1

I always get these ideas for annual blog posts, so we have a reason to update more frequently. Anyway, here is another idea, lets see if it sticks this time eh? So the title says it all. I'll update this blog post periodically through the day, and hopefully you'll see what school life is like for me (and Jenn!) on a daily basis.


- Rode my bike to school today like usual, left my apartment at 8:00 AM, rolled up to school in about 10 minutes. I have to be at school by 8:20, but I like to get there early so I can avoid all the kiddos.


- No 1st period today so I got time to make some copies and lesson plan. 


- Gotta check email first though. Then facebook. Then drink my coffee. Oh crap. It's time for 2nd period. Whoops! There goes my productive hour...


- Just had a bunch of 9th graders for 2nd period. Man...what a bunch of zombies! They didn't even get into the game I prepared for them. Wish I could say that they're normally an awesome bunch, but nothing new here. Oh well. Gotta keep trying!


- So mentally drained from that one class. I try so hard to get them to speak just anything and it just sucks when a class doesn't participate. Sigh...


- Oh well, got a break until 5th period. Made 300 more copies. Just killed a tree right there, this industrial-sized copier is wicked though. Took about 3 minutes. Super fast! Finished powerpoint and lesson plan for part 2 of lesson 1 for 8th grade. Going to do a board game activity, 1st time ever. Lets see how that goes. Stayed productive, started part 2 of lesson 1 for 9th grade. Gotta make this lesson active, maybe I'll try to get them out of their seats so they're not such zombies. 


- Lunch time! Curry and rice. Kimchi too (of course!). And some cole slaw thing and when I refer to it as cole slaw, I mean that in the most distant of comparisons. It tastes nothing like it. o_O But it's not bad. 


- Finished lunch quick today. Just going to chill until 5th period at 1:20. Going to try out that board game activity. Wish me luck!


- Well...one period later, and I gotta say I'm not disappointed with the results, but not happy either. They played the board game, and played using the rules I gave them, BUT only when I was at their table. Aargh! Next class, I will have to be more stern about them following the rules, and give a bigger incentive probably. Overall, not bad for a first try.


- Gotta watch it though, there is a spot on the board game where you can "Get some candy." A lot of the boy students (of course right?) lied and said they landed on that spot. So I told them if they really wanted candy, they'd have to follow me to my office (on the other side of the school) and give me 5 sentences about themselves. No speaking mistakes. Ha. Let's see who wants candy now.


- 10 minutes later, 8 boy students later, and I'm out 5 pieces of candy. I can't believe they followed me to my office! But this actually made me happy, because I got to hear them think up 5 sentences on the spot about themselves, and they were correct. These were all my troublemakers too so just hearing them speak English made me super happy. 3 of them didn't speak all their sentences correctly, but I told them they could try again tomorrow. Let's see if they do! 


- On a side note, I don't actually get to give them grades here. Don't get me started on how unfair and stupid this is, just know that I strongly oppose it. So, I do have to occasionally resort to candy prizes/rewards. A reward stamp sheet has helped a lot as well. But I would get so much better participation if students actually had an incentive to try in my class. All I got going for me is that they like me and that I got candy. When they don't like me...hey, I still got candy! Haha. Enough about this topic, it just makes me angry. -_-


- Got a break right now before 7th period. Easy day today, only 3 classes. Normally have 4-6 a day. Going to prepare for my last class now. Will be trying the board game again, but this time I think I'll have them do a few textbook activities beforehand to reinforce their knowledge. See ya after 7th!


- What a difference a class makes! This class took to my board game instantly, and it was a complete success. Once I realized that the girl groups would follow my directions, I just switched back and forth between the two boy groups to make sure they weren't goofing off too much. Anyway, I felt really good about that class just now. It's always nice to have a good class before the end of the day!


-Speaking of which, the day ends in 20 minutes! I get to leave at 4:20 PM. So I'm going to finish cleaning up my desk (it always accumulates so much random items somehow), and then call it a day. Bye!