Teacher Brain

For me there is nothing more fulfilling than doing something that I know I'm good at. I know I'm a good mommy and I know that I'm a good teacher (of course, there's always room for improvement)! Sometimes it seems to me that both of these things must be independent of each other; in order for me to be a good mommy I have to be home all day long, and in order to be a good teacher I need much more time than I think I have to devote to it.

Fortunately for me I have had a situation drop into my lap which will allow me to combine both aspects of my life; for reasons all their own, my mom has taken my 14 year old out of school to be home schooled. Now while I also have reservations about some home school programs and the necessity for students to interact with one another on a regular basis for numerous reasons, this is the best decision for her.

Until I start student teaching in August again I will be teaching Jess English and Algebra. Until Owen comes home I am sticking with English only because it is the area I am most familiar in. I have to say, I'm having a blast! It is difficult to get started because I am a very structured person and my mom and sister are not. They are perfectly fine with just doing things when they have a few minutes to squeeze it in, but I need to have a specified schedule. This has created a few problems, but it seems to be ironing out now.

We just finished reading Romeo and Juliet and I gave her a few assignments to figure out what we need to be working on. Before we started the play she was determined not to like it. I mean, why would you like something that old??? Once we got started she really got into it; at the end of the play she said "I had no idea I would like it that much!" Yaay! I also showed her the modern version of the play; the movie with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio - she loved it! It was really neat to be able to show her what you can do with a piece of writing. Perception is everything!

We began reading 1984 on Monday and so far it is going fantastic! There are a lot of vocabulary words and I am giving her a heavy reading load but she seems to be doing well with it so far. I am really enjoying figuring out how to question her so that I am not giving her answers and helping her to get "the big idea". I was really surprised how difficult this can be when you have one student who isn't "getting it". From my experience in the classroom usually there is at least one student who is making the connections that the rest of the class needs to be able to progress in their thought processes.

I suppose that's it for today! :)