Ms. Delano learns/teaches about "mental notes"

There is nothing more... cathartic than to share a gripe session with 10 people who are living the exact same schedule as you with the exact same complaints. All anyone ever wants is to feel like what they feel and need is felt and needed by others. That is what I just had. Me and the other girls who are at High Springs unloaded our complaints to a poor, unsuspecting reading comprehension teacher who we literally just met tonight for the first time. She listened to us complain about supplies we were told to buy but didn't need, teachers who ask us to do so much but don't have the decency to answer our questions, assignments that will actually hurt us and not help us due to the fact that they require us to put aside valuable teaching time, and the fact that no one takes our complaints seriously. This woman listened and reached out.

And thats about all I wanted. Someone to look back at us when we complain instead of sending us somewhere else.

What I feel and need right now is a 30 dollar a week gas stipend, less nit-picky assignments so that I can fully enjoy teaching second grade, and a little respect. Though college students are notoriously lazy, when teachers say "I don't want to hear your complaints" (field advisor) it makes me feel like she knows exactly what they will be and wants to do nothing to help address those concerns.

In other news, I absolutely love my life. I know thats a strange segue, but that kind of sums me up right now: a ball of anxiety with a burning fierce love for what I am doing every day. I was nervous about second grade but now I can't imagine doing anything else. AFTER 1 WEEK. You know you've made the right career choice somewhere along the way when you wish that college would get off your back so you can get back to your unpaid laboring at an elementary school.

My supervising teacher, who will from here on out be referred as "GR", is exactly what I would have wanted if I knew what to ask for. She trusts us and wants us there. She let's us have free reign but has expectations of us. It is absolutely fabulous. I will try my very best not to tell laborious stories about how much I delight in each of the students, but sometimes I know I will want to because thats how I am wired.

Here is a story that needs to be shared. I've been sharing the bejesus out of it in fact but it's because it makes me feel something new and exciting... it was my first moment where teaching came absolutely natural and I didn't copy any one else's style.

It was the moment I taught the class about mental notes.

Back story: I am intimidated by children, adults, and just about everything. Yet, I also feel empowered when I get to lead children, adults, or just about anyone. I thrive on being in charge and in control... because I get to feel in control. And to me, the only thing more delightful than being out of control is being out of control (yet somehow maintaining just enough control to enjoy it).

So I am sitting in GR's rocking chair, killing 15 minutes before lunch. I decide to reach for the nearest book and read it aloud. The students complain to me, "Mrs. Delano we already read that one its about a tree and a play and a sheet and a boy and a thing..."

"Yes yes," I said. "But I want to read it TO you so that we can pay extra close attention to the CH sound and the SH sound. I want you to look for it."

"But what should we do when we hear it?" asks Elizabeth from the front row.

"Everytime you hear a sound, I want you to make a mental note."

"Whats a mental note?" Asks about 10 children in choppy uproar.

"A mental note means you do nothing, you SAY nothing... you just think! You think real hard and remember what you heard."

"Like THIS?" Asks Abigale as she balls up her fists and clenches her face.

"Just like that!" I responded, as the kids took off in silent mental noting.

And thats around the time that this blog became story time for Ms. Delano and her exploits in elementary education. Did I mention we learned about alliteration too today?