We have all survived.
Aug. 4th, 2006 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnteachClass is over. It was ...fun. Now I'm not complaining, because it's done.
Never attribute to malice what you can attribute to not knowing. As a teacher who had been a substitute for less than a year, I was the most experienced of the daily staff. The "Student Wrangler" administration role has a number of pitfalls, but my anger is based on:
1. Small decisions outside the classroom have huge effects inside it.
2. All materials for a class need to be in place half an hour before the class starts, when the students start arriving. Improvising at the time the class starts is possible. Improvising after the class starts, not.
3. The split is inside/outside. Outside the classroom, if I'm told it's not my worry, it's not. Inside, I own the issues, and need to be informed of every issue that comes up.
4. The classroom is a theater stage. Things that interrupt the show or draw focus away from the spotlighted performer are bad. Talking, sanding things, having the team pull stuff out during a lecture with slides rather than during a discussion period.
5. Having surrendered some autonomy in #3, being told that there is "bad news" when it's really a "Bad decision" or "mistake" is extremely maddening.
and, basically, yes, I'm a primo donno because it's a class that I have to have go well. If 37 (37!) students get bored, it's chaos. You can walk away from the room; I cannot. You don't see it every day; I do.
The amount of stress I underwent, and didn't lash out for, is probably not obvious. Yes, I vented here.
Never attribute to malice what you can attribute to not knowing. As a teacher who had been a substitute for less than a year, I was the most experienced of the daily staff. The "Student Wrangler" administration role has a number of pitfalls, but my anger is based on:
1. Small decisions outside the classroom have huge effects inside it.
2. All materials for a class need to be in place half an hour before the class starts, when the students start arriving. Improvising at the time the class starts is possible. Improvising after the class starts, not.
3. The split is inside/outside. Outside the classroom, if I'm told it's not my worry, it's not. Inside, I own the issues, and need to be informed of every issue that comes up.
4. The classroom is a theater stage. Things that interrupt the show or draw focus away from the spotlighted performer are bad. Talking, sanding things, having the team pull stuff out during a lecture with slides rather than during a discussion period.
5. Having surrendered some autonomy in #3, being told that there is "bad news" when it's really a "Bad decision" or "mistake" is extremely maddening.
and, basically, yes, I'm a primo donno because it's a class that I have to have go well. If 37 (37!) students get bored, it's chaos. You can walk away from the room; I cannot. You don't see it every day; I do.
The amount of stress I underwent, and didn't lash out for, is probably not obvious. Yes, I vented here.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-05 05:02 pm (UTC)You're not being enough of a "prima donna"
Date: 2006-08-05 09:48 pm (UTC)All materials for a class need to be there the day before the class starts.
Teaching is theater. Your students will do enough to make it improv without the [offensive characterization deleted] prop department contributing. Kick and shout if you need to (but don't scare them too much, they might all act like fainting goats).
BTW, my sister Anne (you might remember her) has just finished her first full year as a HS science teacher. She's told a few stories like some of yours.
--
Ed Mooring