Patriotic Symbols - March 20th

Today was a tired morning in Ms. D's class. My teaching teammate (TT) and I went in with a great website he created (http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rof2p/patriotism/) with the American Flag, The Statue of Liberty, the Bald Eagle and the Washington Monument. The webpage just basically went through all four of these iconic figures in terms of location, the history or story behind it, what it looks like and what it means, and then on the last page as students clicked through it, they were able to view a large chart that just put all of the information together. It was a great way to use technology in the classroom, and to do something in small groups where the students were engaged and working with us, much more so than when the two of us have been "teaching our tails off" in front of the whole class sitting on the rug.

The hard part about today was the exhaustion and hard work that TT and I have put into the whole unit and how it is catching up with us. I am really excited to JUST be teaching, and not be teaching while I'm simultaneously trying to "be a Fourth Year", be doing tons of extracurricular activities, taking other classes and the balance has really been difficult to maintain this month. Little did I know when I got back from Spring Break how much I would be thrown into a huge work load untill the end of the year (are we there yet?). I keep thinking back to my "Teaching Metaphor - teacher as a Juggler - and try to keep my head afloat amongst it all. Teaching is quite the rush and it can be invigorating to be spreading the knowledge and hard work you have prepared for a well-planned lesson, but (especially with these groups where we teach 5 kids at a time and do the lesson 4 times) the fatigue does get to you.

I talked to my dad on the phone the other day...he was finishing up teaching his first real lecture at the Medical School where he is an Assistant Professor and we were swapping stories about teaching, students and the stories and histories they bring with them to the room (even in the professional medical school world) and how educating and informing students is "such a rush" - interesting to think about how many people in my family have given teaching a whirl, I am curious to see how long I end up trying it for and where it takes me!