Day 20--Hectic! what the heck!

Day 20--Tuesday

Weather: 6:29pm--32 degrees F (0 celcius)
Exchange rate:1311 (3 point drop)

Today in my special conversation class we were going over a unit that had phrases to describe people. like weak, old, strong, etc. We learned the phrases "Strong as an ox", "quiet as a mouse", "weak as a kitten","cute as a button", etc. One phrase that cracks me up is "Old as the hills" as in "Grandpa is older than grandma. he's as old as the hills". What if one of the students went home and said "grandpa is as old as the hills". The parent would say "where did you hear that?".."at school".

After my conversation class I get a break. I was on my way to lunch and the korean teacher said "In your DA class you have to take up an essay". What? no one told me about an essay. apparently we were suppose to take up an essay. Yeah they tell us things at the last minute.

My first class was hectic! I had 14 students on the roll. The max number is supposed to be 13!! I had 2 new students. I have new students almost everyday. either they are new or they move from another class-move up a level. But I had 16 students in my class. 2 more that weren't on the roll. I don't know if they were from a mon/wed class (if they miss a m/w class they can come to the same class on Tues/Thurs) or new students. Then I didnt have enough desks. There were 15 desks plus the desk that I lay my books/materials on in the front of the room. I gave the student my desk and I put my stuff on the floor. What the heck? why did I have 16 students?

My 2nd class was better than last time. They didnt act up as much. Im glad. They still talked a little when they werent suppose to but not as bad as last time. My students didnt really understand the skillbags exercise so I had to explain it to them over and over. It was really a stupid exercise anyway!

I hate teaching middle school. Now I have 2 students in middle school instead of one. The material is too short! I was finished with the lesson in 15 mins. that was after we had talked about the material, went over it and reviewed it a 2nd time. we even finished another unit. Then we still had time to spare. there isn't enough material to last 45 minutes.

My last class was good.We didn't have enough material to cover in this class either.

Thats my main problem--not enough material to teach. They expect us to spend 35 mins on a paragraph! Its not enough. I bet my students get tired of repeating the same story twice and repeating every line in the vocab twice. There are also tons of mistakes in the teaching books. Mostly grammer mistakes. Its crazy. we complain but they don't care. we have to teach it like it is. no matter if its wrong. these students are going to be not as smart as they should be.

This is crazy! This school is so disorganized. There is tons of miscommunication. We get everything at the last minute. Everything is so hectic! There's not enough material to cover. There are tons of mistakes in the books. I don't know how long I can stand it!!

I was reviewing my syllabus for tomorrow and planning out my lesson and I found out that in one class Im basically teaching the same lesson again. When my students asked me why the same lesson was in their homework questions twice I thought it was a mistake. I looked through the book and there are a few lessons where im teaching the same one twice. There are suppose to be 20 lessons in a book. I saw that this one only has 16 so they make you teach some of them twice. come on..they could have thought of 4 more lessons! If the students complain I'll just say thats what they told me to do--complain to them!!

I was trying to enter in my grades today but I couldn't finish. I have a page where I can look at their names and enter in their grades on the internet. well some of the blanks are empty so I dont know who's grade to put in. I have a few students that I cant find out their grade til I know which blank their name goes in. Then I went to the front desk and ask the receptionist if I could make a copy of the 2 rolls that I need. She was doing something with it so she said "I'll give it to you tonight". I told her I was leaving so just put it on my desk. so now I have to wait to put in some of my grades. I need a new copy of the roll because they keep adding new students!! Once the semester has started I think you should stay where you are so you wont put added stress on the teachers who are already stressed out because they don't know what the heck is going on because everything is so disorganized!