Thursday, September 15, 2005
Long weekend, damn I could really use one right about now...
For once, I'm actually not going to take any shots on poor old SD... Nope, this time the onus is all on me, no excuses...
My high school is preparing for the annual cultural festival, and as a result, classes have been reduced to 40 mins per class rather than the usual 50. Should be a good situation right? Well, that's what I thought, except that I underestimated the lack of focus that the students would have. As a result, one of the classes actually loved the current lesson plan that I created, even though it was reputed to be the WORST class group in the entire school. Nevertheless, that class actually enjoyed it and students (astonishingly!!!) requested more of those kinds of lessons. Of course I was psyched at that point because I finally got that class motivated to actively participate. That's the ONLY class that would actually get anything out of that lesson though, and so the past few classes after that have been borderline disasterous. I take responsibility for that, because it was my lack of preparation that created these results. The only problem is, I'm starting to feel like a burnt out pitcher who's pitched too many innings. I'm losing my stuff, edge, and worst of all, intensity. I do readily admit that teaching is not my career choice and that I'm not all that good at it either. But, I feel like I should do my best to at least motivate and encourage these teens to become prepared adults. It's just that recently, I'm really feeling worn out by the fusion of business and education. The whole concept is inherently flawed as our best efforts in education will occasionally be undercutted by the business aspect. Like I told my buddy Herman before, it's really the frustration of the business that we're in. Still, I hold myself fully accountable for straddling the fence between caring and not-caring. Anyways, to quote Steve Spurrier: I'm close to "losing my give a damn." But, I'm going to get it back, hopefully soon.
My high school is preparing for the annual cultural festival, and as a result, classes have been reduced to 40 mins per class rather than the usual 50. Should be a good situation right? Well, that's what I thought, except that I underestimated the lack of focus that the students would have. As a result, one of the classes actually loved the current lesson plan that I created, even though it was reputed to be the WORST class group in the entire school. Nevertheless, that class actually enjoyed it and students (astonishingly!!!) requested more of those kinds of lessons. Of course I was psyched at that point because I finally got that class motivated to actively participate. That's the ONLY class that would actually get anything out of that lesson though, and so the past few classes after that have been borderline disasterous. I take responsibility for that, because it was my lack of preparation that created these results. The only problem is, I'm starting to feel like a burnt out pitcher who's pitched too many innings. I'm losing my stuff, edge, and worst of all, intensity. I do readily admit that teaching is not my career choice and that I'm not all that good at it either. But, I feel like I should do my best to at least motivate and encourage these teens to become prepared adults. It's just that recently, I'm really feeling worn out by the fusion of business and education. The whole concept is inherently flawed as our best efforts in education will occasionally be undercutted by the business aspect. Like I told my buddy Herman before, it's really the frustration of the business that we're in. Still, I hold myself fully accountable for straddling the fence between caring and not-caring. Anyways, to quote Steve Spurrier: I'm close to "losing my give a damn." But, I'm going to get it back, hopefully soon.
# posted by bastard : 9:08 PM
