Mamma said there'll be days like this.
Your roommates will give you Strep throat
your first week of Student Teaching.
There will be no microwave at your placement school
and you will forget a spoon for your yogurt, again.
You will sweat obnoxiously every time you
teach. Or you'll end every day with a headache.
No matter how many times you say "voices off and eyes on me,"
students' voices will be the furthest thing from "off" and
their eyes will be anywhere but on you.
Your Mentor Teacher will have to step in to help manage,
and you will feel like a failure.
Two students did not bring their homework.
Seven students forgot their binders with all of their notes.
14 of them need a pencil, but, of course, they aren't sharpened.
So they'll stand there grinding their pencils in the
sharpener while you're giving directions.
Your classmates will be filled with worry,
which makes you worry that you are not worried enough.
Nights and weekends will be spent working to support yourself, while
the bills keep adding up and the paychecks do not.
There's a story about a man who works a hard, tiresome job.
After a rough day on the job, he brings home
a friend to meet his family.
He stops at a tree outside his house
and touches the branches with both hands.
He walks in the door with a smile on his face,
greeting his children and wife with open arms.
Struck by curiosity, his friend asks him
about what he had seen earlier.
The man tells him that is his "trouble tee", where he
leaves his troubles from the job each night when he comes home.
And in the morning he goes to pick them up again.
In the morning,
there are never as many as he remembers hanging up the night before.
Tomorrow is not today. Tomorrow,
Trevor* will finally bring his notes to class AND a pencil.
Your MT will compliment your lesson
or let you know you did well taking over for one of his classes.
The sweating-while-teaching will gradually dwindle.
You'll gain confidence in and outside of the classroom.
Leave your troubles on the trouble tree.
Pick them up tomorrow.
*Not real names
First, I think it is no secret that we are having extremely similar experiences. Regardless, I love your positivity!
ReplyDeleteFrom pushy paras to unprepared students, our second floor gang has some major challenges, but we there are no challenges we have to face alone.
It might be a good idea to start our own trouble tree! I really love the idea. During our lunch break, we can write down all the crappy things that happened that morning, or all the crappy things we anticipate will happen that afternoon and leave them on the tree.
That way we can pep-talk the heck out of each other and show those crazy kids that they can't get rid of us that easily!
Thanks again for being a wonderful and positive support system, Sarah. You are so easy to work with and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to continue learning from you and with you for the next few months.
I love your poem! It captures the worries and stresses of this semester so well! I really connected with several parts of your poem, particularly the first stanza.
ReplyDeleteI love the hopeful tone at the end and I love the idea of a trouble tree. This might be something I do for myself or even for my students as they come into my classroom!
Excellent job! I can't wait to read more about your experiences!
Ms. Brill - thank you for sharing your poem and sharing the story of the trouble tree. What a brilliant idea. I can easily see incorporating this in my personal life as well as in a classroom environment. The pencil sharpening is maddening - one trick I use is to have pre-sharpened golf pencils on my desk (they are half-sized pencils). It is a struggle this final stretch, but I am so glad we can all share in it together and nod our heads when we put our experiences into words. Thank you for sharing and being a voice a reason in these crazy last months of school.
ReplyDeleteI love the image of the "trouble tree," and I love your positive, up-beat tone. Oh, yes, student teaching is difficult, but definitely worth the trouble. Your image of the students "grinding their pencils in the sharpener while you're giving directions" makes me smile. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteHi, Ms. Brill! I had a lengthy, appreciative response for your poem, and I somehow managed to delete it. Doh! So, I will just say that I love this poem. I love the last four lines of the first stanza. And I love the trouble tree ... thanks for reminding us to reflect on if/how our words and actions lift people up or drag them down.
ReplyDelete