Teaching: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

When I started to write more on my blog this year, I decided I would write not only about tips for other teachers and the good parts of teaching, but also the ugly. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of my teaching week.

The Good!

1. I really enjoy my classes so far this semester. Sometimes you just get lucky and end up with great classes. Trust me, it doesn’t always happen. There is usually that one class period that a teacher dreads. I’m going to cross my fingers that this will continue.

2. I have around 195 students this semester. I made a goal for myself that I would learn all of their names by the end of the first week. The 6th graders totally believed I could do it, and the 7th and 8th graders were doubtful. Happily, I proved the 6th graders correct.

3. I love when something happens in class that makes me cry laughing. We were playing a warm-up game called, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” (Are you noticing a theme for this week?) I have three students on stage that are experts in everything on my talk show. The first person is the “the good” and always gives good advice. The second is “the bad” and always gives bad advice, and the third person is “the ugly” and always give really bad advice. I call on students from the audience to ask our experts for advice about something.

I always introduce the speakers on my talk show and have them reply to me just to make sure they are projecting their voice enough. During my 6th grade class, I accidentally introduced the girl as “Ugly” instead of her real name. She responded with “MS. HOLST!” and I couldn’t teach because I was laughing so hard. Oops. Luckily, she has a great sense of humor, and I now call her, “Ms. Beautiful” whenever I see her. (Not the students pictured.)

4. This week, I completed my last two Back-to-School Nights…ever. These two nights are my least favorite part of the school year. The parents are always amazing, but it is exhausting. After talking all day in class, it is tiring for this introvert to talk to parents (classes change every ten minutes) for two more hours. I gave a little cheer when I finished with last my session.

5. I love when administrators visit my room. I’m not a fan of the formal observation; I would rather administrators just stop in whenever, so they can to see the real deal. My principal stopped in to one of my classes. He is great with the kids, so I decided to ask him if he wanted to give a speech. He said yes, and asked for topics. One of the kids yelled out, “peanut butter,” so he gave a quick speech about it. The kids loved it. It’s nice for them to see their principal in a different light.

The Bad!

The temperature in my classroom has been really frustrating these past two weeks. It has either been 85 degrees in my room (with some classes that have 33- 37 of us in there), or there is a freezing tornado happening over my desk. Not only do I wear a jacket when sitting at my desk after school, but it is difficult for the students to hear me and each other over the tornado. I have only had one day so far in the past three weeks when my temperature was normal. If you work at the district office and are reading this, please help! I hear that this is where the temperature is controlled.

The Ugly!

As a teacher, you can become very ingrained in many of your student’s and their family’s lives. This week, our community experienced a tragic death that happened to the father of three of my past students. Not only do I love their mom to pieces, but their kids are amazing. I taught some of some of their kids all three years while they were in middle school. You get to know them really well! My heart has been aching for this family all week. I attended the funeral this weekend, and it was beautiful.

One thing that is difficult as a teacher is when you receive bad news right before school starts. As I sat crying in my administrator’s office, I thought about how tired I am of pretending that everything is okay in front of my students on certain days . A friend texted to remind me that it’s okay to let your students see that you are sad. Although I didn’t appear sad to them, I did share that there are times in your life when you don’t want to do something, but you have to talk to yourself and tell yourself that you CAN do it. I told them that I was sad that morning, but as I was walked to my classroom, I kept saying over and over, “You can do this, Judi. You’ve got this.” It’s good advice for them when they don’t want to go on stage to give a speech.

You Never Know What You’re Going to Get

One of the main things I love about teaching is that it is never boring. When you mix 195 little humans into your daily life, you never know what you’re going to get. Some days are good, some bad, and some are just downright ugly.