trendymatt's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, I'm Mr. Trendy. While on a routine classroom observation day for work today, I was thrust into an interesting position. Because the teacher I was supposed to observe unexpectedly took the day off, I ended up teaching a lesson on teen pregnancy to seven Health classes today. Am I a teacher? Nope. After today, do I ever want to be a teacher? HELL no. Without going into the boring details of our research project, just know that the fact that this teacher took the day off and left the lesson for his substitute to teach was NOT kosher in the slightest. Our project researches the effects of a teacher's abilities on how well their students learn topics concerning the prevention of HIV, other STDs, and pregnancy. All of our teachers have been told multiple times that if they are planning on taking a day off during our three-week curriculum, to let us know ahead of time and to postpone the lesson they missed for the next day they're in class. Obviously, this teacher disregarded that memo. He had prepared a full lesson plan for his sub (another big no-no in terms of our research project... in planning for another teacher to take over the day for him, he has basically rendered all of our data from his class useless to us). The sub had no clue what to do, as he (surprise) had never been trained on our curriculum. Thus, it was decided that having me teach the classes today would cause the least amount of damage possible, in terms of the reliability of our data. So, I stood in front of seven classes of ninth graders today. I now have more respect for teachers than ever - especially high school teachers. These kids were, for the most part, HORRIBLE. But, in two of the classes I found some smart-ass kids sitting toward the front who ended up being the biggest help to me. I learned early on that it's a good idea to get the class clown on your side if you're going to have any control on the class. About a dozen kids came up to me over the course of the day and said that they had more fun than they had so far this semester, which at least made me feel like my being there wasn't a total waste of time. We're definitely going to have to have a talk with the missing teacher sometime next week, but all in all I guess today was a learning experience. I guess. I'm off for an extended weekend in the morning to visit West Virginia and all the relatives therein. The next time anyone talks to me, I will have a distinctive mountain twang to my voice. You have been forewarned. Yee-hah. 10:32 pm - 10.07.04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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