Day One

Today is Wednesday, it's June 10th, and I'm still teaching while the rest of the schools in my city are closing for the summer. My classroom isn't the conventional classroom, I teach adult education. Adult ed. is an education for adults who are seeking their High School Equivalency (H.S.E.), the new version of Indiana's former degree called the G.E.D. My class currently consists of 7 wonderful and daring adults with developmental delays who went through the public school system, received a Certificate of Completion, and are back for round two to try and sharpen their reading, writing, math skills in order to make them more employable; get started on earning their H.S.E; and obtain a job.

I myself am a first year teacher, I have a bachelor's in Secondary Education and my concentration was Social Studies Education... Yes, my concentration is Social Studies Ed., not Special Education. Luckily for me I work for an amazing non-for-profit organization, The Literacy Alliance of Fort Wayne, and I have amazing students who see me as a capable educator for this particular class and I'm a determined person who refuses to disappoint anyone.

I have started this blog to try and help me keep track of what I do everyday in this classroom and reflect on the day, so ready, set, and...

Day One of Blogging:

The quick summary of today goes as follows: aigoasijiogdahg!!

Like I already said, my background is Social Studies and not Special Education. In my world I am used to desks, classroom rules, consequences, rewards, a structured curriculum which is set by the state of Indiana, and 48 minute class periods. I'm slowly (for 2 months now) getting used to the fact that my classroom will never be any of those things. I don't hate that my classroom is different from what I expected, I'm just not used to it. Right now, the idea of assigning my students online computer games which practice their varying math skills feels so wrong! I'm a social studies teacher, I am most comfortable in front of a classroom having an active lecture/discussion with a class full of 12-18 year old's about why Martin Luther chose to break away from the Catholic Church. My students on the other hand don't like lectures or discussions, they like computer games and they require games with repetition so that the math facts stick. Those educational requirements mean we do what works best for them and I will force myself to adjust. In the mean time I'll continue to sweat bullets, critically evaluate myself, and someday feel like I have reached the "ultimate reality" which Hinduism refers to as "Brahman."

I really need to be going now though, I received a call an hour ago that the bus I had reserved to take my class on an outing to the Community Harvest Food Bank has broken down, so that means I need to do some last minute lesson planning for tomorrow.