The Crazies

           After feeling completely drained following a full Saturday of classes in Oxford, myself and Chris drove back the long two and a half hour drive to Greenville.  The week before we had ordered the 2010 horror movie – The Crazies.  My roommate Chris is a huge zombie fan and convinced me that we should watch this movie since it is right around the year of Halloween.  The basic plot of the movie is that a  plane with a deadly toxin which turns humans into blood thirsty zombies has been leaked into the local water supply of a small town in North Carolina.  48 hours after a human is exposed to this toxin they are transformed into blood thirsty zombies.  Reflecting upon this transformation I can certainly see that I’ve had a small transformation since the time I began my first year of teaching.  The purpose of this blog will be to describe some of the transformations in my own teaching style since summer school ended. 

            One of the biggest changes has been my overall confidence.  When I first started teaching I was so afraid of ending early or going over time.  Not that I’m a pro now or anything close to that BUT even if we end class 10 minutes too short I am confident that I’ll have the kids packing up with 20 seconds left in class.   Over the first four days of school I received what most would call a crash course in killing time.  Over those four days we had to hold the same crew of 20 kids all day in my room.  At first I was so incredibly nervous because I figured ‘WHAT COULD I DO WITH KIDS FOR THAT MUCH TIME????’  While I am still not ever envious of holding kids for even a day, the thought of holding kids for an extra five minutes is nothing to worry about. 

            Another change in me which is somewhat negative has been my teaching style.  I’ve become more borning.  While this isn’t a huge problem it is an area I would like to improve.  When classroom management is still a problem I am doing better with being less boring.  Today in my class we used basketball review to go over all the material for tomorrow’s test.  It was a huge boost to have a great day while having a fun lesson.  For so long I wanted to just bore the kids to death before I got classroom management under control. 

            Overall the school year has been incredibly stressful.  At the same time I am encouraged at the fact I can make fun lessons while having well behaved classes.  There are plenty of times I have awful lessons or awful classroom management but as a first year teacher things are going well….I’m not a zombie yet…