2001-05-02
Long term subbing, posted at 5:08 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com A teacher's father at my high school has passed away, and she is taking the rest of the year off. I have been offered her spot, and accepted it this week. Today was my second day.It's pretty cool. After my student teaching, it only took one off-day for me to find my first teaching job. It sounds better than it is in reality, however. I'm still receiving subsitute teacher pay, yet I'm doing all the planning that a real teacher does. Still, it adds stability and will give me a good dry run for my first year of teaching.
I'm teaching Freshmen English, which is a lot funner than I imagined. The kids have lots of energy, but they also seem to be able to settle down more quickly than my sophomores did during student teaching. Who, by the way, I'm missing dearly. Jimmy and Paul, probably my two greatest "problem" students, came to visit me today and it was really cool. My mentor teacher doesn't cut them as much slack as I did. I think they miss me too.
I'm teaching them "Great Expectations," which I've never read before. They're more than halfway done, so I guess that means soon I'll be able to say that I taught the text but never have read it. Seriously, I think we're going to just stop it, watch the movie, and start something else that I enjoy more. I think administration is just sort of letting me do what I want, or at least they're not paying much attention to me. I'm thinking of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman".
Otherwise, things are good. Life so far as a teacher in these new classes has been very smooth, as I don't have to worry about anyone evaluating me, yet I don't have all of the responsibility since it's not officially my classroom. The kids, so far, have been great. I always tell my kids they can call me "Mr. M" if "Mr. Miazga" is too hard. One kid took it a step further and asked me my first name. I told him "Mark". The wheels started turning.
He now calls me "Eminem". I love it. Kids are so cool.