Future?

It makes me really nervous that I'm already getting emails from TFA about job opportunities for the 2012-2013 school year. That's TWO YEARS from now. I certainly appreciate the networking opportunities, but (un)fortunately, the job openings are not close enough to possible boyfriend medical school cities, so I won't be applying immediately.

Yesterday, I tried one of the techniques right from my new book. It suggested that when you ask a student to do something, and he/she refuses, stare 'em down. It outlines exactly how to go from slow turn to withering stare to leaning over desk. I did it, and it worked! A girl who never even sat down when I asked, picked up a crumpled paper from the floor and threw it away all because I stared at her. She hated being stared down. It was great, and no words were exchanged.

Today, my voice went slowly away. I made it until the end of the day, but just barely. Believe it or not, I think I'm noticing progress with my students. Although I made some mistakes today, the students are more in control. Someone even came into my classroom during afternoon homeroom and commented on how quiet and well-behaved they were. At one point during the exam, I was even able to sit down and grade some papers! My class is slowly, slowly beginning to run itself. Sometimes.

The Tuesday off has made me extremely more relaxed. I feel almost in control. I did, however, look at the stack of half-done sub assignments from Tuesday that were going to be graded as a quiz...and threw them away. Don't look at me like that! It wasn't worth my time, and it would have only hurt their grades.

I talked a little bit about science fair (hereafter: SF) with my TAG-less 7th grade class. It seems like this is gonna work out. A couple of students had to make sure that they would definitely fail if they didn't do it, but a lot of them were interested. I also showed them some of a Blue Planet DVD (next in the Planet Earth series) and they LOVED it. I'll have to incorporate that into some of my other classes. I think the segment on tides will be good for CMT review on both Earth and Life Science.

Tomorrow, I introduce SF to my homeroom. Oh goodness! I hope it goes well! Also, I hope my voice comes back.

I was wiped out today, and instead of a usual gym workout, my mom suggested trying something new. I Netflixed a yoga video, and made it 10 minutes into it before becoming confident enough in my core strength to be bored. I'll get a good workout this weekend.