more weeks
last week on friday/thursday I finished my first year of teaching. a teacher's first year, some say, is one of the most important ones. granted I was not a real, certified teacher and I don't know if I am now a "teacher," but I did teach classes all by myself for one year and now that's over. so I can say I finished my first year of teaching. what to say about it though? probably all the things you would expect. it was really fun and sad to say goodbye on the last day. it was over too quick. there were many kids that slipped through the cracks, but there were also many kids that I truly impacted. I learned a lot about myself and I know many ways to become a better teacher. yada yada yada.
it sounds hallmark-y to read it maybe but people that are still in school as students or teachers will understand that there is a certain magic in that environment, no matter the age group. every profession is unique but I feel something particular and special about teaching, about education. there is a definite stop and start; there is the element of potential and thoughts about the future; there is the opportunity to stay sharp mentally and physically--the motivation to stay on your game in order to deliver your best material continually; specifically for me there is the excitement of working in the studio everyday, of thinking 'hey, I might actually be a real artist;' and increasingly at Alma I think we are getting the feeling of 'hey, this place is ours and we could really take it somewhere significant and unique, make the school something rigorous and meaningful.'
many many kids, and I'm bragging now, and several teacher friends have been hounding me to stay another year. I wrote somewhat enigmatically a while ago that there is something brewing for molly and I that bodes well for the future. It looks like these things are finally coming to fruition as of today. Molly sat down for what turned out to be a 2-hour interview for a new position within the court youth center (the fiscal operating body of Alma). she will certainly blog more about the specifics of that position, but basically we just got headhunted by my supervisors.
armena began hounding me about a month ago about staying another year and at first I said no because we were going to china (we still might... later). she accepted that because it sounds glamorous (Dahktah Jones!) but she kept asking me and I came clean that china wasn't going to work out this next year but we were still thinking of moving. why? well because I dragged molly down here to allow me to take a really cool job at Alma and she didn't end up with such a really cool job and she's ready to leave. oh. well, there's not that much in her field in this town. oh, what's her field. well, let me tell you about miss molly... and on and on.
so after I tell her all the wonderful things there are to say about molly professionally, she leaves and comes back a week later and says, "we still want you to stay and irene wants to give molly a cool job too." whoa. long story short she completed flipped my expectations and plans upsidedown and it now looks like we will be down here for at least one more year. I think we are all very pleased by this, down here in new mexico. it is very exciting and flattering to be looked after like this professionally, and to tell the truth I really love teaching ceramics at alma and I think molly's job is going to be a really great step for her career.
details to follow.
this week for me was an intensive series of planning meetings at school. I was the only americorps present at these teacher meetings, but I also had the strongest opinions concerning recent events at school and ways to improve in general. what can I say? we minnesotans like to complain about stuff. the meetings were up and down, productive ones and terribly terrible ones, but overall I think we ended the week on a very positive note and we are communicating at a new level with the administrators. there was a lot of damage to school culture/climate when they canned all those teachers out of the blue and I think this week we did a lot of good work to patch things up there. we also did a lot of work in general on how to make alma a better school. I've been talking with dorn a lot about where we want to take the visual art dept. and what it will mean if we say a kid graduates from alma and their specialty was visual art.
we had a particularly candid meeting on thursday about issues between faculty and administrators. we met as just faculty just prior to the meeting to hash out and organize all our grievances. basically we just bitched about every single thing there was to bitch about as far as working at this school goes. then we organized that bitch sesh and called in the admins and laid it on them and they laid some shit on us and we made a plan to move forward. I'm not used to those kinds of meetings where we actually put junk above the table and it honestly feels like there might be a chance to make positive change. usually you just let it simmer and accept shit as a fact of job-life. I must give credit to the administrators that they are willing to be receptive to that type of feedback. so despite the sometimes idiotic way they run things around the school, they seem to do a few crucial things in a really good way. I maintain that alma will either be an amazing school in 10 years or it will be dead in 5. we have yet to see if our plans will be put to use or if they will end up as empty words.
the faculty is also a really fun group to be around. I think I probably have little complaints about each person's working style and goals and certain things about certain people really do annoy me. but in general I think they've assembled quite a remarkable crew of people there and it is quite fun and interesting to work with them. we laugh a lot and there is also a ribald element of teasing and sexual harrassment that is somehow not a problem but a really funny element amongst staff members. we also seem to have a pretty fun time when we party together outside of school, like we did last night at admin. joie's house. she has recently built an adobe, wood-firing oven, called an "horno" in spanish (silent 'h'), in her back yard. she had everyone over for wood-fired pizza and beer and it was a merry old time for a thursday night. I'm excited by the possibility that molly won't have to just hear about these things from me but she'll also be a part of them. I think it could be weird to work in the same place, but in actuality I think our jobs will be far enough apart where we won't really see much of eachother at school. mostly I'm up in my room with students during the day anyways.
no plans this weekend. we'll probably have a small celebration on molly's achievement tonite. next week I'm eagerly anticipating getting back in the studio. I've acquired the help of two student studio assistants and they will be with me on monday morning to clean up and redesign the studio. also on the list is testing the new glazes and setting up sample color tiles in that area, squaring away the recycling operation, changing the tool crib around, acquiring use of the lockers outside my room, and then, perhaps starting the week after next, we will begin producing pottery for the culinary program and token gifts for irene to give out to donors and other big wigs (she loves art gifts). basically I told armena that that is what I wanted to do to finish my hours in americorps, and like most of my dream ideas at alma, she quickly assented.
that's all for now.
ps don't get me wrong there is still plenty of shit to complain about, at alma, concerning education, teaching high school kids, even fucking china! don't ya'll start to think I'm getting soft and satisfied out here. I'm still minnesotan.
it sounds hallmark-y to read it maybe but people that are still in school as students or teachers will understand that there is a certain magic in that environment, no matter the age group. every profession is unique but I feel something particular and special about teaching, about education. there is a definite stop and start; there is the element of potential and thoughts about the future; there is the opportunity to stay sharp mentally and physically--the motivation to stay on your game in order to deliver your best material continually; specifically for me there is the excitement of working in the studio everyday, of thinking 'hey, I might actually be a real artist;' and increasingly at Alma I think we are getting the feeling of 'hey, this place is ours and we could really take it somewhere significant and unique, make the school something rigorous and meaningful.'
many many kids, and I'm bragging now, and several teacher friends have been hounding me to stay another year. I wrote somewhat enigmatically a while ago that there is something brewing for molly and I that bodes well for the future. It looks like these things are finally coming to fruition as of today. Molly sat down for what turned out to be a 2-hour interview for a new position within the court youth center (the fiscal operating body of Alma). she will certainly blog more about the specifics of that position, but basically we just got headhunted by my supervisors.
armena began hounding me about a month ago about staying another year and at first I said no because we were going to china (we still might... later). she accepted that because it sounds glamorous (Dahktah Jones!) but she kept asking me and I came clean that china wasn't going to work out this next year but we were still thinking of moving. why? well because I dragged molly down here to allow me to take a really cool job at Alma and she didn't end up with such a really cool job and she's ready to leave. oh. well, there's not that much in her field in this town. oh, what's her field. well, let me tell you about miss molly... and on and on.
so after I tell her all the wonderful things there are to say about molly professionally, she leaves and comes back a week later and says, "we still want you to stay and irene wants to give molly a cool job too." whoa. long story short she completed flipped my expectations and plans upsidedown and it now looks like we will be down here for at least one more year. I think we are all very pleased by this, down here in new mexico. it is very exciting and flattering to be looked after like this professionally, and to tell the truth I really love teaching ceramics at alma and I think molly's job is going to be a really great step for her career.
details to follow.
this week for me was an intensive series of planning meetings at school. I was the only americorps present at these teacher meetings, but I also had the strongest opinions concerning recent events at school and ways to improve in general. what can I say? we minnesotans like to complain about stuff. the meetings were up and down, productive ones and terribly terrible ones, but overall I think we ended the week on a very positive note and we are communicating at a new level with the administrators. there was a lot of damage to school culture/climate when they canned all those teachers out of the blue and I think this week we did a lot of good work to patch things up there. we also did a lot of work in general on how to make alma a better school. I've been talking with dorn a lot about where we want to take the visual art dept. and what it will mean if we say a kid graduates from alma and their specialty was visual art.
we had a particularly candid meeting on thursday about issues between faculty and administrators. we met as just faculty just prior to the meeting to hash out and organize all our grievances. basically we just bitched about every single thing there was to bitch about as far as working at this school goes. then we organized that bitch sesh and called in the admins and laid it on them and they laid some shit on us and we made a plan to move forward. I'm not used to those kinds of meetings where we actually put junk above the table and it honestly feels like there might be a chance to make positive change. usually you just let it simmer and accept shit as a fact of job-life. I must give credit to the administrators that they are willing to be receptive to that type of feedback. so despite the sometimes idiotic way they run things around the school, they seem to do a few crucial things in a really good way. I maintain that alma will either be an amazing school in 10 years or it will be dead in 5. we have yet to see if our plans will be put to use or if they will end up as empty words.
the faculty is also a really fun group to be around. I think I probably have little complaints about each person's working style and goals and certain things about certain people really do annoy me. but in general I think they've assembled quite a remarkable crew of people there and it is quite fun and interesting to work with them. we laugh a lot and there is also a ribald element of teasing and sexual harrassment that is somehow not a problem but a really funny element amongst staff members. we also seem to have a pretty fun time when we party together outside of school, like we did last night at admin. joie's house. she has recently built an adobe, wood-firing oven, called an "horno" in spanish (silent 'h'), in her back yard. she had everyone over for wood-fired pizza and beer and it was a merry old time for a thursday night. I'm excited by the possibility that molly won't have to just hear about these things from me but she'll also be a part of them. I think it could be weird to work in the same place, but in actuality I think our jobs will be far enough apart where we won't really see much of eachother at school. mostly I'm up in my room with students during the day anyways.
no plans this weekend. we'll probably have a small celebration on molly's achievement tonite. next week I'm eagerly anticipating getting back in the studio. I've acquired the help of two student studio assistants and they will be with me on monday morning to clean up and redesign the studio. also on the list is testing the new glazes and setting up sample color tiles in that area, squaring away the recycling operation, changing the tool crib around, acquiring use of the lockers outside my room, and then, perhaps starting the week after next, we will begin producing pottery for the culinary program and token gifts for irene to give out to donors and other big wigs (she loves art gifts). basically I told armena that that is what I wanted to do to finish my hours in americorps, and like most of my dream ideas at alma, she quickly assented.
that's all for now.
ps don't get me wrong there is still plenty of shit to complain about, at alma, concerning education, teaching high school kids, even fucking china! don't ya'll start to think I'm getting soft and satisfied out here. I'm still minnesotan.
posted by j0eb0t-xj9 at 6:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home