Friday, Feb. 14, 2003
What a great day - observation and all, posted at 5:21 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I am very happy right now.Today was my formal observation from my supervisor. It went so well that I want to shout off the top of a building.
Afterwards, this is the basic gist of what she told me:
"It is so nice to see this kind of instruction happening with these kids. (meaning lower level 9th graders). They need it. You're really getting to the 'why' of questions, making them think about it. I mean, it's obvious they all love you. You do know that, right? But you're not using that to your advantage and just having them do things to please you. You're making them realize why they're doing things, why they're going through the writing process. These are the type of probing questions they need... I knew you were a good teacher, but, wow, you just seem to take ideas and try them out and make them your own, you try so many good things in here, things that are really helping your kids, we really got to get more people in here to watch you do what you do."
I'm not good at taking compliments, but, wow, that felt good.
Because we're on the semester schedule, I feel like I'm beginning my 4th year of teaching. I'm getting so much better at it every time. It's a job that requires constant work out of school, constant re-evaluation of best practices, constant decision-making. Today, I had a kid come in for the first time after two weeks. I met him today. His mom had been dropping him off every day, and he'd been skipping out. So I met him today, thirty seconds into my formal evaluation. He was embarassed to come in. But I handled it fine. My sup commented later that she barely noticed he was new.
My sup's last comments to me were, "My only concern is that you seem to be doing so much, working so hard. I don't want you to burn out. I hope the job is giving you at least part of the energy you're putting into it." It is. I told her that I love teaching, and that certainly helps.
The rest of the day went great as well. A kid came in after school and I'm quite sure he had an epiphany while I was helping him with his essay. Yes, an epiphany. in Baltimore.