today was my last day student teaching at cheektowaga. i honestly wonder: what other profession offers some 90 students throwing me a party and making thank you/good luck cards? they put white streamers over the door so when i walked through it was like a whoosh kind of thing. they bought donuts and drinks and even pizza.
the funny thing is, i was wondering "well this is so nice. does so and so really deserve an 80? does this warrant an 85?" the answer is no, of course, but it was funny.
overall i had a wonderful time. the only "bad" days were just before long breaks when no one wanted to work or pay attention. my only behaviour problem was when two students wanted to fight, but the bigger and stronger of the two never stood up (so there was no scrawny english teacher saying "whoa whoa whoa guys, let's break it up). i mean i did say that, but i didn't stand up or make any physical movements. other than that, and the occasional misfit acting up or attracting attention, i enjoyed my stay. i mean even those tougher days were good to me.
it won't hit me until i walk into lackawanna on monday. yeah, lackawanna. truth be told, everyone i know said "good luck" and made a face when i said "cheektowaga." but i guess this time, the lack is much worse. i'm already a little excited to start fresh, though, in the sense that i can begin entire new units and do whatever i want. i have all this experience and confidence, so i'm willing to try a whole bunch of different things.
so here's what i did during my stay at the cheek. i got to teach a bunch of really cool short stories, like "old mother and the grouch," "crossing spider-creek," and "stockings." i also taught raymond carver's "the bath" and "a small good thing." we workshopped their stories and discussed what makes a good story. we talked about going against the denoument and fighting the rising/falling action. we watched the chinese restaraunt episode from seinfeld to look at details and little things.
we watched outfoxed and fahrenheit 9/11. some students cried. we did film presentations on other contemporary documentaries. we started making a film about real issues. i unfortunately will have to go back to see the end product.
we learned about woodstock and watched jimi's patriotism explode on stage vs. insane clown posse's wrestling and fago-throwing antics. we compared crosby, stills, nash & young's "cost of freedom" to limp bizkit's "break stuff." we discussed ways to remain an individual and make choices even though we are inundated with messages and ads all the time. we looked critically at a poorly written book in order to become better readers (samuel richardson would be proud). i explained what "emo" really means. we compared michael moore's The awful truth to outfoxed to the weekly standard. in the end, we wrote our own persuasive rants against an important issue, and then posted them to class blogs. the kids made comments and added pictures, and man do that project rock.
i'm sure there's more, but you get the idea. cheektowaga is a great school and i will miss those kids and jim and kristen and eating lunch with other ST and complaining but laughing about how many times it takes to give the homework assignment. i could do a "if i had to do it all over again" thought process, but right now i just want to enjoy the memories. i will dissect myself once i begin teaching at lackawanna this week. it's weird because i build all these strong relationships with kids, and then i'm forced to disconnect immediately. in 2 days time i will have to forget them and make new connections. i'm thinking of going back to visit this week if i get the chance.
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thelatekid's journal
