week 2.

OMG I am teaching.

I taught lessons last semester but only sporadically and never did I have to think about the big picture so much. My CT (cooperating teacher) really threw a bunch of responsibility my way and while my initial reaction was "Oh, sh--!," I do realize how much of a favor she is doing me. I spend each night thinking about what I want to say for each lesson and making sure I know all the sign language vocabulary I might need. This week, I was nervous about my Guided Reading and my Black History Month lessons. Next week, I'll be nervous for the same lessons...plus math, spelling, and grammar lessons. Can you believe it? I certainly can't. The strange (and good) part is, I don't feel alarmed or overwhelmed. I'm making a million lists and writing all over my planner but my mentality is less "Oh my dear lord, how will I do it all?" and more "This is what I need to do."

How have two weeks gone by already? It feels like it has only been two or three days.

Random thoughts and occurrences from this week:

• My students are so unhealthy. After nannying in Vermont and Marin and on the Upper West Side of New York City (yes, I realize the implications here), I thought today's parents were obsessed with local, organic, healthy, fresh, unprocessed foods. Not at Lexington. For snack every day, one girl eats a packet of six mini-donuts. Another eats a plastic container of mini-M&Ms. Two boys have Chips Ahoy cookies, and one of those boys never wants the cafeteria food for lunch. So those cookies are all he eats during his six hours at school. Where are the apples and carrot sticks, Moms and Dads?!

• During one of my first Black History Month lessons, I pulled up a picture of Barack Obama since he was going to represent the letter B in our alphabet book. This was the one person I knew they should already know without my help. While I was right, I still needed to reiterate why we were learning about him on that day so I asked the students why he was famous. Someone replied in sign language, "save america!" ("He saved America!")

• My students are stubborn. Very stubborn. They are also brilliant and fascinating, each in their own way. Last semester, I had to learn that when I wanted to be nurturing with a child, I had to be stern instead. In this classroom, being stern does not work as often as the students are quick to shut down and pretty much hate you for the rest of the lesson (and maybe the day). It's more beneficial to pick your battles and just do your best to keep them on task rather than reprimanding them every time they don't pay attention. The ultimate goal is always to approach the classroom situations in a way that allows for maximum learning time. And what I'm learning? Extreme patience. Maybe the most I've ever learned in my life.

• I was working with one student on a reading assignment when he was being uncooperative. I told him he wasn't allowed to roll his eyes at me whenever he had to do something he didn't want to. He responded by saying he was tired. I responded by saying that I was tired too but I still came to school to work. He looked confused and signed, "live here you" ("Don't you live here?")

• After sneaking a yawn one morning, my eyes were a little watery. One of the girls looked at me to ask me a question but then quickly asked, "cry you?" ("Are you crying?"). I signed to her that I just hadn't had enough coffee (Funnily enough, I actually drink tea, not coffee), and she responded, "leave get can, asleep you (Sackman) mad" ("You can go get a coffee. If you fall asleep, Ms. Sackman will be very mad."

• The students sit at a U-shaped table and when I am observing my CT, I sit sort of off to the side and behind the students. Right smack in the middle of a lesson about synonyms, one of the girls turned completely around in her chair and asked me "every-morning you put-on-makeup you?" ("Do you put makeup on in the morning?") 

Side note: This blog post took me forever to write. There is a difficulty in explaining conversations that happen in sign language, especially when I know that most people who read this are not familiar with deafness or deaf culture. Part of the joy of sign language, in my opinion, is the dramatic flair, the in-the-moment emotions, the way that seven-year-olds who are deaf seem to display personalities that you see in seventeen-year-olds who are hearing. My students are sassy, goofy drama queens whose facial expressions are classic. These things are hard to explain.*

So anyway, if none of the above things that I shared with you make sense or seem that interesting, just know that I am putting them there for my own benefit so I can look back on these notes someday and see the progress of my week-to-week experience.

This weekend, I need to write eighteen lesson plans and make a poster about the four coins and the $1 bill. Wish me luck!





*Special note to Keri - I can't help but think of Paddy Ladd when trying to convey what the children are signing to me and then "translating" it for my readers! Looks like I have some reviewing to do...