The utter chaos that is student teaching.

Wow. I have been made a slave to the world of student teaching and haven't had much time for personality-related things such as writing and . . . enjoying life . . . since my last post, which was godknowswhen. So in this five minutes of freedom between lesson planning and writing a post-assessment, I'd like to say hello, friends. Just so you know that Helen didn't bury me in her back yard an' all.

Aside from the fact that my life now feels perpetually like finals week (honestly and without exaggeration), it's going miraculously well. I'm full-time student teaching at the high school now, and I have three classes of wee and not-so-wee chillens under my wing.
My sophomore class (my favorite) literally has 19 boys and 5 girls, which was initially a bit of a shock. Rarely do public school teachers get classes that are nearly all-male, but I was lucky enough to land one, apparently, and there are also enough class clowns and miscreants in the ranks that three other teachers literally laughed out loud when they looked at my class roster. I was sure after my first class that I was facing an unsurmountable obstacle, but actually, the cosmos seem to have aligned in my favor or something, because it's been pretty successful so far. I've needed every inch of my bohemian cowgirlism just to keep the class in line and loving life, but they've paid back by being good lil' lads and ladies. Although on Fridays I sometimes feel as though I'm living Lord of the Flies rather than teaching it, at least I have a good student following. They like me, by golly.
Makes a big difference.
Huge.

My freshmen, which is more gender-balanced but still heavier on the male side of the scale, just slogged their way emotionlessly through Romeo and Juliet, which I have decided absolutely should not be part of 9th grade curriculum, in any situation, ever. Even when we decoded Merucutio's insults at the nurse, and I tried to sell Romeo as a pathetic stalker of a character (which he is, no doubt), I couldn't teach the play effectively in two weeks, which is all the time that was allotted to me.
Next time I am going to demand to teach The Tempest instead, and I'll reserve four weeks and really do the thing properly, with costumes and all.
Meanwhile, the Yearbook class that I'm co-teaching exists somewhat on the backburner of my chaotic brain. Lots of Adobe programs and editing bad grammar in overly sentimental articles about student life.
Not much else.

Everything should be done in about 5 weeks. I'll probably yammer more then, and be at least 200% more interesting.
Until then, ciao.