The teacher, the school, the class..

 So, I’ve met my mentor teacher and we talked for a couple of hours. By "we talked" I mean SHE talked, she basically sat down and started rambling and I took notes. LOTS of notes. she gave me this huge text-style book about classroom environments to look over before school starts. She is .. very intimidating. She told me that some of the resource workers won’t come into her class because they’re afraid of her. She’s very strict and stern and has a reputation for being "mean." 

That being said, she seems to have extremely good class management skills, because she doesn’t take any bullshit. She told me that she’s not at all sympathetic to their tweenage drama, like when kids come in crying after recess because they  "broke up" she tells them to quit being ridiculous and suck it up. She told me that she doesn’t try to intervene in "dating" unless it becomes distracting to them or others, or if they’re trying to work together all the time and talking and touching and blah blah. She said if she knows there’s a couple who are "dating" then they aren’t allowed to sit in the same groups or work together at all, they can hang out at recess or in gym/library/music, etc, but not in her classroom. She said if it becomes a distraction to anyone, she calls both kids’ parents and lets them handle it. 

She told me to expect to be very busy. She said that my fellow interns will be shocked and possibly horrified by how much she has me doing, and that once she has me watch something a few times, she’ll expect me to be doing it myself. She said I’ll start with D.O.L. and math, because math is the first lesson UAF requires me to teach for the class, and she said once I do the UAF requirement, she’ll just have me doing it every day. She said she’ll have me do spelling, too, and it sounds like I’ll start doing that pretty much right away, too. 

Oddly enough, I know this woman from Open Arms, because her youngest child, Makayla, was in Kasin’s preschool and kindergarten classes. I remembered her and her kids, but she doesn’t remember me at all, and that’s fine. I’m glad, really. It would have been more awkward if she did remember me and we realized we knew each other in some regard, I think. She told me that she’ll be giving me her son in any group projects, which also sounds like it could be potentially awkward… if he doesn’t like me, or if I don’t like him, say. We’ll see how that goes. His name is Anthony. He’s skinny and blonde, very nerdy. Seemed like a nice enough kid.

So. I’m anxious. She said that she’s very straight forward and that she will probably interject a lot when I’m teaching, and not to be offended. She also said that if she thinks a certain game or project isn’t going to work, she’ll just say so flat out, and not to be offended. I told her I’m pretty hard to offend. She’s pretty blunt, and so am I. She told me to feel free to discuss any issues, to let her know if she upsets me or if I dont like something she’s doing, she said I could feel free to do things (math, DOL, spelling, etc) exactly how she does them, or I could try to switch it up and do things a different way, if I want. I think I’ll probably just do it how she does it, and then at the end of the year if I decide I don’t love the way she did it, I’ll research it for myself and do it differently in the future. *shrug* when it’s her class, I feel like I should just do as she would do. 

I also feel like it wouldn’t be hard to get on her bad side, and Im not sure it would be easy to get back on her good side once you did. I do think it will take a lot to impress her, though. I get the idea that we will primarily get along, though. She made me really nervous, so I sort of fumbled for anything to say back to her, and I think I probably rambled and didn’t make much of an impression. 

So, the next step- I need to buy text books, and I need to buy slacks and work clothes. I need some shirts, khakis, possibly a couple of skirts, but Mrs. Thurman dresses down, WAY down, she told me she usually wears black jeans during the week, and blue jeans on Fridays. School district policy says no jeans, at all. I am expected to wear slacks, cords, or khakis. Or skirts/dresses. I’m not much for skirts or dresses, though. I need at least 5 outfits, I think, to get through a week.. I’d like to have twice as many tops so I don’t have to wear the same things over and over every week, but we’ll see. Most of the tops I own aren’t exactly suitable, as they’re mostly tshirts or very casual. I have like three or four 3/4 sleeve and long sleeve tops that would be suitable, though. 

She told me I can wear my orthodic/athletic shoes, not to worry about wearing fancy shoes or heels. I’ll have a drawer to stash things, snacks and the like. She said I can decorate my desk however I like, and that I’ll have my own desk/table with my own supplies, correcting pens and tape and stapler and so on. She also told me that, of the last SIX interns she’s had, FIVE of them have been hired into her school almost right away after they finished their student teaching. So that’s awesome.. hopefully I’ll get hired on and be able to save up money to move.

Ross and his dad have still not worked out the details on the loan we are trying to take out. They’ve got a time set for tomorrow to go and meet up with the officer at the bank. I’m hoping Bill (Ross’s dad) will be ready to sign everything and make this a done deal, because I’m tired of stressing about all of it. I need to buy text books ASAP, I need to buy work clothes ASAP, and I need to pay tuition AND rent, like immediately. We’re fairly far behind in our rent. 🙁 

Well, alright. That’s all I’ve got for now. As of now, the roster for Mrs Thurman and my class is only 15 kids. There’s about 3 weeks left before school starts, so it could change. 

Milo is all set for daycare, too. Finally. His daycare co-pay is sort of outrageous, though0 about $200, $250/mo.. which is almost nothing in comparison, because the actual monthly charges are like $820/mo.. but considering our income, it’s going to be tough. *sigh* 

alright, off I go. 
~Me