My teacher is absent? Guess I'll teach today!

Yesterday my teacher was out (sick) with no warning to me.  I got to Everett at 7:45 and saw that her name was on the absentee board, and to my dismay there was no sub yet either! So I freaked out a bit and give her a call...only to be given a few pointers about assigning a worksheet that I compiled yesterday. I walked to my class with my heart pounding in my chest...am I really going to be these kids sole teacher for the day?  Luckily, the sub shows up, late of course, and I am horrified to find that I can barely hear his voice when he introduces himself as "Mr. Kokame".  The kids would literally eat him for breakfast!

And so my first full day of teaching begins.  No real lesson plan.  But here goes nothing.

I won't lie to you and say my day was a huge success or that hit it out of the park: The block 1st and 2nd period went okay; however, the 4/6th block went pretty bad: yelling, fighting etc. One of the teachers came in to my room at one point because she could hear the class in the hallway.  Embarrassing? Yes...but hello, I'm supposed to be a volunteer here.  My voice got hoarse at one point from talking over the kids, and it was so hard because I don't know all the support policies for dealing with behavioral issues.  All I can say is that I survived; we accomplished some work and no one freaked out or got hurt.  We are working on reading strategies and learning how to scan for important information in a text, all interesting stuff and so I definitely enjoy the content part which is great.

Is it bad to say that I think that in itself is a success?

There I was, with what the other teachers have described as the "worst middle school class in the whole city of San Francisco" and I am trying to lead them through productive and safe eight periods.  A kindly neighbor teacher told me that if I could do that for a day, I could do anything---which is exactly how I feel! Student teaching? No sweat, bring it on.

Please pray for me. My teacher is probably going to be out again tomorrow and so I will be teaching the entire day again!  The encouragement I have received from friends and family has been the thing that has kept me going and has kept me from cracking.  I have so much respect for teachers who have the strength and courage to dedicate themselves to giving quality education to these kids, who so desperately need a safe place that will help them thrive.

And there are so many little redeeming instances throughout my day that are rewarding and keep me sane.  A kid smiling and saying "sup" to me in the halls, a student understands a concept when I help them, a volunteer to clean up my classroom, the list goes on and on.  Thank God for the little things :)