Day 6: "So you DON'T have a teaching degree? Aaaawesome!"
So I'm trying to wrap up the Technology class today, we have about 10 minutes left - this is the 7th period I've been teaching today and I am tired. The blackboard is filled with their ideas of technology, and technical tools. From the internet to the hammer, everything is up there, there is hardly any black left on this board, a cloud of chalk surrounds me, and the temperature is about 90F thanks to the humidity which lingers on despite the summer vacation being over. For about 40 minutes, they flung ideas at me while I was quickly jotting them down on the board in a seemingly organized fashion.
As I try to explain something to them (it escapes me now what that was), I realize I have not really introduced myself to this group, they don't know my background and why some of these technological things excite me so much.
So I go into the whole "I got a biochemistry degree, worked for a year, then went for a chemical engineering degree, worked for 10 years in various industries, and all the planets lined up such that I ended up here, for a whole year, to teach biology and technology."
And then, through the chalk dust, I see their face change and one girl giddily say: "So you don't have a teaching degree?" As I ponder my answer to that, my head slowly swings from side to side, not waiting for my brain to process the best response to this trick question before saying no... And a couple of them smile with an emphatic "Aaaawesome!". And (my favorite comment): "If you've been working more than 10 years, this means you're older than you look - you look like you're 25". Comments like these make teaching worth it...
So I'm not sure what to make of that "Aaaawesome!", what kind of trap lays ahead or is now brewing, if any.
One girl walked out of the classroom with me when the bell rang, and mentioned that it's about time they get a teacher who has actually done something else than go to school and teach.
Now I feel like the girls' expectations are greater than they were on the first day of school. I feel more pressure to perform better than those REAL teachers... But for now, I'll just get ready to improvise some biology tomorrow...
As I try to explain something to them (it escapes me now what that was), I realize I have not really introduced myself to this group, they don't know my background and why some of these technological things excite me so much.
So I go into the whole "I got a biochemistry degree, worked for a year, then went for a chemical engineering degree, worked for 10 years in various industries, and all the planets lined up such that I ended up here, for a whole year, to teach biology and technology."
And then, through the chalk dust, I see their face change and one girl giddily say: "So you don't have a teaching degree?" As I ponder my answer to that, my head slowly swings from side to side, not waiting for my brain to process the best response to this trick question before saying no... And a couple of them smile with an emphatic "Aaaawesome!". And (my favorite comment): "If you've been working more than 10 years, this means you're older than you look - you look like you're 25". Comments like these make teaching worth it...
So I'm not sure what to make of that "Aaaawesome!", what kind of trap lays ahead or is now brewing, if any.
One girl walked out of the classroom with me when the bell rang, and mentioned that it's about time they get a teacher who has actually done something else than go to school and teach.
Now I feel like the girls' expectations are greater than they were on the first day of school. I feel more pressure to perform better than those REAL teachers... But for now, I'll just get ready to improvise some biology tomorrow...
