Student Teaching

Well, with the high school part coming to a close, I am kind of grateful, but I am kind of not. I'm still on the fence when it comes to teaching. I see some reward in it, especially when I actually get through to a kid, but that just didn't happen while I was around.

I was at a pretty "well-off" school. Most if not the vast majority were all rich or have lived a very privileged life, so many of the kids think that they can get anything they want. Now, many of you know me and you know that I am in no way like that. You've got to earn your privileges and you've got to earn my trust. Many of these kids got mad at me when I asked them to do more paperwork or to actually do just a bit more work for me than their normal teacher would require. I gave them a pretty interesting assignment and I thought many of them would rise to the challenge and present me with something worth watching. I was wrong. No, I didn't set the bar too high, the kids just didn't want to reach up that high and then complained when I gave them a lower score than they "think" they deserved.

Also, during this whole experience, I've always felt like I am babysitting. I don't remember high school being like this when I went through. I remember having to work my butt off in most--if not all--of my classes. It seems like now, at least in this class, that this is just a place for them to be from 7:45am-2:15pm and have someone watch over them.

Don't get me wrong, I do have a few students who like to film and who are interested in what they do. They are the ones that always come for feedback and want to know what they can do to improve or where do they go from here. But it seems to be more the guys than the girls.

(On a side note, the majority of the girls that I've worked with at this school have been the whiniest bunch of girls I've ever had to teach. If I ask them to think on their own, they don't want to do it. If they are told what to do, most of the time they'll do it like good little robots.)

But anyway, I just don't know if I'm up to teaching. At least, probably not in a public high school. I might want to try something in the private school or one of those schools that the kids have to apply to get in because hopefully they are the students who want to learn and want to further their education/understanding/creativity/talent.

I've enjoyed my time, but I also haven't enjoyed my time. I just don't know if I'm up to this teaching thing.