Since the excitement of Day 1 has worn off and the work has begun piling up, the Corps has been walking around like zombies.
Let me share with you my afternoon comedy of errors, all relating to printing and photocopying woes. I had finished preparing for tomorrow's lesson (making line graphs) by the time I had left school today, including drawing giant graph paper by hand on our large white teacher paper. All I had left was to print and copy a few things.
I went straight to the computer lab after changing out of my boring teacher clothes, to print out my lesson plan, guided notes (fill-in-the-blank worksheet), exit slip (mini end-of-class check for understanding), and homework. I printed out one of everything, so I could make copies at the free copy center across campus.
I went straight to the copy center and made ten copies of the homework and exit slip. Although we still had our two students today, the later Living Environment section's numbers rose to 22 and we were once again warned to expect more students tomorrow (unlikely, in my opinion). At that point, I noticed that I had failed to print my lesson plan. I had apparently opened the document on Google Docs and printed from the browser, so I was left with one page of lesson plan and eight blank pages. Great. I grumpily left the copy center.
On my way back to the dorm, I realized that I had forgotten to copy my guided notes, so I returned to the copy center to do so. I then learned that it does make a difference if you photocopy something upside down, as I walked away with 10 exit slips stapled in the bottom right corner.
After dinner, I schlepped back to the computer lab to print out my lesson plan. I only needed two hard copies of this, so I figured it would make more sense to pay to print them than to go all the way back to the copy center again. As I waited for the lesson plan to print, I realized I had only requested one copy printed. And of course, I didn't feel like logging on again to the slow-as-molasses Windows XP PCs.
So I stopped at the copy center for third time today.
Today went well. I was expecting only two students, so I wasn't terribly shocked when no one else showed up. I teach the second hour, so I had time in the morning to get some more lesson planning done for next week. I worked on one of the school computers, which was so old (how old was it?) that their version of IE didn't have tab browsing. I was shocked when I clicked on a Google Doc and another window popped up! Then I downloaded Chrome and everything was better.
My lesson flew by smoothly, with at least five minutes to spare! To my delight, the exit slips were filled out expertly, with only one area of misunderstanding (which I didn't teach very well, but it was not a major objective).
In other news, five CT CMs have already quit. They will be missed. It is stressful, but I don't find it unmanageable. There seem to be mixed opinions all around on
whether this is the most challenging experience of our lives. I think back to second-semester Organic Chemistry with a shudder.
I've come up with some (what I think) interesting lesson plans for next week.
Tomorrow I will do better. Hopefully, I'll sleep better too.
Let me share with you my afternoon comedy of errors, all relating to printing and photocopying woes. I had finished preparing for tomorrow's lesson (making line graphs) by the time I had left school today, including drawing giant graph paper by hand on our large white teacher paper. All I had left was to print and copy a few things.
I went straight to the computer lab after changing out of my boring teacher clothes, to print out my lesson plan, guided notes (fill-in-the-blank worksheet), exit slip (mini end-of-class check for understanding), and homework. I printed out one of everything, so I could make copies at the free copy center across campus.
I went straight to the copy center and made ten copies of the homework and exit slip. Although we still had our two students today, the later Living Environment section's numbers rose to 22 and we were once again warned to expect more students tomorrow (unlikely, in my opinion). At that point, I noticed that I had failed to print my lesson plan. I had apparently opened the document on Google Docs and printed from the browser, so I was left with one page of lesson plan and eight blank pages. Great. I grumpily left the copy center.
On my way back to the dorm, I realized that I had forgotten to copy my guided notes, so I returned to the copy center to do so. I then learned that it does make a difference if you photocopy something upside down, as I walked away with 10 exit slips stapled in the bottom right corner.
After dinner, I schlepped back to the computer lab to print out my lesson plan. I only needed two hard copies of this, so I figured it would make more sense to pay to print them than to go all the way back to the copy center again. As I waited for the lesson plan to print, I realized I had only requested one copy printed. And of course, I didn't feel like logging on again to the slow-as-molasses Windows XP PCs.
So I stopped at the copy center for third time today.
Today went well. I was expecting only two students, so I wasn't terribly shocked when no one else showed up. I teach the second hour, so I had time in the morning to get some more lesson planning done for next week. I worked on one of the school computers, which was so old (how old was it?) that their version of IE didn't have tab browsing. I was shocked when I clicked on a Google Doc and another window popped up! Then I downloaded Chrome and everything was better.
My lesson flew by smoothly, with at least five minutes to spare! To my delight, the exit slips were filled out expertly, with only one area of misunderstanding (which I didn't teach very well, but it was not a major objective).
In other news, five CT CMs have already quit. They will be missed. It is stressful, but I don't find it unmanageable. There seem to be mixed opinions all around on
whether this is the most challenging experience of our lives. I think back to second-semester Organic Chemistry with a shudder.
I've come up with some (what I think) interesting lesson plans for next week.
Tomorrow I will do better. Hopefully, I'll sleep better too.
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