The first days of teaching are always the hardest yet simplest
days of the career. Learning the names of my students are the hardest part of
my first days because I'm terrible at memorizing in such a short amount of
time. I have to keep track of two classes worth of names at school of
employment then run to my pre-student teaching classroom and memorize their
names in 45 minutes.
For an opening "get to know you"
exercise, we made name folders, introduced each other in front of the class and
had the students ask at least two questions were group about the student being
interviewed. Sometimes the teachers chimed in to ask questions which rather
helped move the interviews along or we were just genuinely interested in the
topic and couldn't help but ask a few questions.
Today was rough because we are working on
first-person narratives with freshman who are new to the building and to each
other. My CT began explaining the assignment and a few topics the students
could relate to such as: first day of school, pets, and parents. It was brought
up that the CT's parents are divorced and a student blurted out something along
the lines of, "Why would you talk about that?" The student continued
saying things like they couldn't understand that people in that room could have
parents who were not together and that it was a unspeakable topic. I sat in the
back, hiding behind the stack of papers I was grading, unsure what to say or do
in my CT's position. My parents are, too, divorced and I let my emotions get
the best of me. I did not say or do anything until I asked my CT how they felt
after the class was over. My CT mentioned that the student and my CT had a
discuss afterwards to be more aware of other people's lives and some
experiences may be different than theirs. My CT has been teaching for years and
had experience with much worse situations but I could not help but feel like I
would not have handled the situation the same, and a much more professional,
way. I definitely learned something I can use in the future.
It seems as though we have some things in common. I, too, am HORRIBLE at memorizing names, and even faces for that matter. I feel like a teacher this will be an ongoing challenge because we get a new set of students on at least a yearly basis. I have been trying different techniques to try to help me memorize names. So far I havent come up with any. I also work in the district outside of my placement. I have managed to memorize the names of the kids at work, but I believe that's because they are in our room the majority of the day and there are only 6 of them.
ReplyDeleteAs far as sharing that a person is divorced it's interesting that an issue would arise of that. I wouldn't have assumed that sharing such details would be TMI. Plenty of children have parents who are divorced or are raised in single parent households...
It was a strange confrontation but that student is gone now so I don't think it'll be an issue in the future. On a high note, I have all their names memorized!!
DeleteLike both of you, I'm terrible with names. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend my placement on the first day of school so I missed out on the introductions. It looks like you already have a head start on getting to know your students.
ReplyDeleteI think your CT handled the student comment about divorce fairly well. I'm glad that he or she actually talked to the student about the issue. I have seen too many teachers ignore comments like that. I'm curious though; how would you have handled the situation?
I honestly don't think I would have handled it like I would now. Seeing her reaction helped.. I think I would have taken it too personally, but that's what this process is for, right? (ha)
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