Whirlwind

The weeks seem to be flying. I've already been at the high school a month. In that time I feel I'm making really strong connections with the students. The ones that were apprehensive to me in the beginning are now loosening up to me. They're coming to me with great questions about their artwork. It's such a great feeling. I was even told by my CT that the Principal's son (who I have in the Ceramics class) told him that I'm really fun. So that was incredibly nice to hear. Makes me feel like I'm doing something right and that the kids don't hate me or think I'm boring. :) Nothing's worse than a boring teacher. But I still want to challenge their thinking and I think I'm finding ways to get their gears going little by little.

I notice more and more students coming in to work in the art room during their study halls and homeroom times. Many are in my Ceramics class and I'm really glad to see students putting in the extra work to do well. I've even let students come in during our prep time and they've been really good either working on homework or experimenting with new art materials. I love that the art room is this "safe place" for students to get away from loud study halls and lunchrooms. This is something I hope I can do in my future art room.

This week there's been a lot of school rumors going around and things brought to the teacher's attention regarding other teachers actions in their classrooms, etc. My CT likes to let the kids vent, but also tells them that they need to go to administration to let them know about things. My CT and I realized it was serious when students that don't even have classes together complain about the same type of things with this teacher. This teacher was ultimately saying things that were not professional. I told them how important it is for the students to tell administration, even writing them an email or letter to remain anonymous if they don't want to talk face to face with administration. I did something similar in college regarding an instructor and the dean of the school took care of it right away. That instructor never found out that it was from me but results happened. From what I understand in this high school, the principal is very good about confidentiality and the students should have nothing to worry about. My CT made sure that the students were aware of this and they seemed a little more at ease about making the next step.

The end of the week proved interesting when there was an emergency faculty meeting regarding something that happened the week prior. They could not give us specifics, but in the art classes there were students talking about the incident that happened. One student even showed us the front page of the news' website so we knew it was something major that had happened. The principal informed the faculty to not talk to the press (who were conveniently outside the school all day Friday). Luckily, no one followed me to my car on the way out. What a week! Still experiencing tons!