

Though I thought I had already had my worst day of teaching, there seemed to be one day that just topped them all off. Yesterday. The day was going great. The morning ran smooth, there were no melt-downs, my math lesson was absolutely amazing. But let's just get to the nitty-gritty. 2:00. My supervisor walks in the classroom. Everything was going just as planned. I had stayed up the night before planning and preparing for this lesson that my supervisor observed. I was confident that this lesson was going to go well, and we started the lesson.
The kids were down right stinkers! They were so excited about using GoogleEarth that they were absolutely horrible! I usually have good control of them and have several classroom management plans in affect. Not today! The screen on the board was pulled down covering all of our behavior management plans! I had nothing to use! Besides the fact that they were uncontrollable...I felt that the students learned absolutely nothing from the lesson, which in turn, was my fault. To make a story short, my supervisor came up to me and said that I controlled everything well, and mainted the student's focus in a professional matter, and that overall, the lesson was good. Lie! How nice of her to say that. But it was a lie! As I soaked in what had just happend the emotions started coming. And if you know me, when my emotions come, THEY COME! Tears flowed and I could not control myself. I stepped out of the classroom, took a couple minutes, and managed to walk back in the classroom. My supervisor came to me, hugged me, and began to give my a pep-talk. I started to calm down and tried to listen to what she was saying. "You'll have days like this. Sometimes you'll wonder why the heck you're teaching! But we all have days like this. You did fine. Don't be so hard on yourself. I gave you a perfect score." (don't know why she did that, but I'll take it) The tears kept a coming. The students were silent. They didn't know what to think of it. The teacher's crying? No such thing.
Again, I stepped out of the classroom to try to calm down. I walked down the hall into the teachers lounge and just sat and cried until I could finally just breathe and focus. I came back to the class to find my mentor teaching having a nice little talk with the students about their behavior during my lesson. She was hard on them, and boy did they have the guiltiest looks on their faces.
So, the good side? Today. They were absolute angels. I guess something good can come out of a total wreck. One boy walked through the door this morning and said "Mrs. Forbush, I am sorry that you got your feelings hurt yesterday." The same boy and a few other students made some "i love you" cards during their free time. So the point of the story.... this whole year I've been the teacher trying to support and guide and help my students' emotions. When they cry, scream, yell, or hide under their desks, I've been the one trying to help them get through it. Well, I guess what goes around comes around. Today, my students had MY back. They were the ones there for me, and they were the ones that got me through the day.
5 comments:
Brit that is so sweet. I am sad to hear yesterday wasn't great, but so happy you have such cute students! I bet you really didn't do as bad as you thought and were a little rough on yourself though.. I'm sure you are an awesome teacher! Good job Brit :)
Don't you just love those days?! Do you have the same supervisor that I do? She came yesterday and 2 minutes into my lesson they called us down for pictures. Are you kidding me?! Then she saw 5 more minutes and it was time for lunch but she was the biggest sweetheart. You're a great teacher! Way to be
Oh, Brittany. I know just how you feel.
My supervisor showed up two observations ago, and I turned to her and said, "Should I be expecting you?" She was there as scheduled. I was observing my mentor teacher and wouldn't be teaching for another 20 minutes. I would've jumped up and started my lesson, but I had to wait for the resource students to return to class. I was so embarrassed. She got to see barely 20 minutes for a scheduled 45 minute observation. I couldn't shake the embarrassment. Even when she came again, I could barely look at her.
The hardest phone call I had to make was to ask her to reschedule my most recent observation, because my whole team would be participating in a guest presentation at the time of her scheduled observation. (I had scheduled that observation.) I was so worried that she would think that I was unorganized and inconsistent. I didn't want two uncharacteristic moments to change my life forever. I have worked so hard to get where I am and have amazing dreams for the future. I didn't want a negative evaluation to keep me from greatness.
It's amazing how many emotions can be wrapped up into one short observation.
Brittany! Hey Im glad i found your blog! You and your husband look like you are doing good!
Who came to watch you? And don't get discouraged! There will definitely be days like that. But you will learn from them. Don't stress :)
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