Friday, April 26, 2013

Impatience, my life, and why teachers are really cool

So I am not a particularly patient person.  I hate to wait on things, especially important things, like for example, waiting to hear back after submitting a 1 million page job application.  Or waiting for the latest ana white momplex update (I'm an addict.  It's pretty ridiculous).  Some say anticipation is a good thing.  I say anticipation is for people who have more time on their hands than I do.  Even in the mornings, I am not good at waiting for it to be time to go to work.  Yes, I am a nut case.  What else is new?

So what is new in the life of Caitlin?  Whelp, I had Wednesday off and basically slept it away, Thursday I worked half day AM teaching middle school and today I taught half day PM for chorus.  At least it was a music class though it was admittedly challenging.  Adolescence is challenging time in one's life, especially in high school, I think.  At this point, these children's physical maturity exceeds their mental and emotional maturity.  They look and often feel like adults but their heads haven't quite caught up with their bodies.  Case in point?  Teenagers storming out of class because they didn't like me.  Yeah.  It happens.  I have to remind myself to not take it personally; very rarely is it specifically me (though admittedly I have had some  times where a student and I just didn't mesh).

The more I work as a sub, the more I admire the teachers who do this full time.  I've had classes that I loved and wanted to see every dingle day and I've had classes that I've been ready to abandon by lunch time.  Some times, there is just a bad mix of kids.  In addition to the day to day process of teaching and managing behavior within the classroom, there are 900 other things to do.  Meetings, committees, training, continuing education.  It's a lot.  I spend a lot of time filling in for these teachers while they are doing training and such.  Teachers must constantly be monitoring their students to make sure they are learning as they are supposed to and make sure they are exhibiting normal social development and bear no markers of abuse.  It is a lot of responsibility.

I really enjoy the actual teaching aspect of teaching and participating in a learning environment  The look in a student's eyes when he or she finally understands something is fantastic.  It's the other crap I dislike  I want to teach higher ed music and voice lessons.  That's not to say there isn't any administrative bull crap that goes along with it but it is a completely different environment inside the classroom.  It's different when students have to decide to take your class, not be thrown into it by a guidance counselor.

So... if my goal is to be a college music professor/voice teacher I should maybe do something about it.  I'm trying to get my ducks in a row for graduate school applications but often times that is easier said than done. Wish me luck?


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