Monday, July 31, 2006

tikka ma-blog-a

ok today was my first real day teaching, so I guess I should record a few thoughts for posterity. Really though I'm feeling pretty exhausted and it's only 10:50 local time, which is mountain time (I'm a mountain man).

school was good. my class is 2nd period, beginning ceramics, so that means I get 1st period to prepare (wake up). Classes are 1.5 hours, good for ceramics. I had a lesson plan prepared last night. Included were an icebreaker, studio rules, a set of "art rules" by John Cage, coverage of my syllabus, and a short slide lecture about the broad range of art ceramics.

let's see... I thought the first 3 items would take up appx. 40 minutes, and I think they actually took up 7 minutes. I was in a dreadful spot after that, wanting to bolt with nowhere to go. Luckily I had prepared ahead of time, so the only thing I could do was go on with what I had. Things weren't all that bad, and as I started going over the syllabus we all sort of loosened up. I was able to start getting more into my expectations and approach, and we shared a few laughs. I got some questions during the syllabus which generated a little discussion. That all felt like a good thing. Then we did the slide presentation and I thought there was pretty good interest in all that, with more questions and laughs and guards being brought down. After that we played a dumb name game but had a good time, with everyone involved. Then that was it! That was my first day.

If it seems that I'm relaying this with some negative overtones it might be that I'm a bit overwhelmed right now. The first day was actually very good, I thought. Different than what I expected, but good. However, like all AmeriCorps programs, there are a lot of problems. More on these later.

molly good, las cruces good, house good, kitty good.

molly, just now, to kitty, "kitty, are you crazy? circle 'yes' or 'no.'"

"sweat runnin all over my face/ I don't quit/ NO!/ I just press harder/ than I ever did before!"
--MC Hammer, 2 Legit 2 Quit.

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