edu'ma'cation

Today was my first day as a substitute teacher. I'm not sure if you've ever met middleschoolers, but they are certainly a challenging bunch. I have decided that being a middle school professor is by far the hardest job in the world - harder than my life as an Assistant, for sure. I have a few exciting stories to share with the masses.

-One girl asked me if I was 'just a substitute' or if I was doing this to be a real teacher. I said "No, actually I'm doing it in between leaving DC and going to Africa." to that she responded "I think being a teacher would be better than going to Africa - same amount of bloodsucking insects though."

-I let the kids call me by my first name. I had hoped it would help them be generally respectful - it worked with the 7th graders, not the 8th graders.

-In general, 8th graders are far more difficult than 7th graders. I figure there is something totally hormonal and psychological that explains that. or maybe they just take up more room because they sure are louder.

In general I enjoyed most of the kids and thought they were all pretty great. However, there were some bad apples. I wonder if there is anyway that educational experience can be individualized so that students can maximize their potential without outside influence from other students that may not be at the same level. For example, we watched a video today in the class I was subbing. A few loud talking students disrupted the entire experience for the class - whereas, what if they had all been watching the video on their laptops.

It also really made me think about what its going to be like working with similar-aged kids in Africa. Will they have the same respect issues? Will they be eager to learn? Will there be some kids who are eager and others who are annoyed? How do cultural differences affect our attitudes towards education? All these things I thought about working with the kids today. Maybe the thinking got in the way of disciplining and thats why they haven't called me back for another day!