I'm baacckk! I really didn't go anywhere. I just haven't been keeping up, but a small selected group of people who shall remain anonymous, because this blog is allegedly anonymous, have been nudging me write again. Plus, I want to write again. Within the month or so I haven't been writing, many things have changed for me professionally.
To summarize, I've added on the role of mentor teacher to several teachers new to our school along with taking on the actual role of mentor teacher to a teaching "intern". When I first stopped to analyze this, my first thought was, "What the hell? I'm only a second-year teacher." I'm still learning and growing myself, so who am I to tell someone else what to do? Then, I realized that this is not what I wanted out of a mentor teacher, and it's not how I will do it. I'm a support system; I offer advice and sounding boarding. So far, so good. There are some teachers that need me to talk more than others. In fact, there are some teachers I "mentor" who I'm clearly using for my growth and development. Admittedly, I really like these new roles so far. Perhaps, this is foretelling my future? We shall see!
Movie of the Week: This weekend, I went to see Lawless. It came out about a month ago, but I'm now getting around to it. To be honest, I haven't seen a movie since my last post, so this is my first in several weeks. The only reason why I chose it was because the showtime was the most convenient for me, yet I'm glad that I did see it! It was a fun, if unsubstantial, movie.Lawless is the true-ish story of bootlegger Bondurant brothers during Prohibition. If you like your Southern accents hard, along with a good gangster flare, I recommend checking Lawless out. Even the massive amount of Shia LaBeouf didn't kill the movie for me. Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce more than enough make up for the Beef O.D. I seriously could watch close-ups of Hardy talking all day and saying "Umm.." in the terrific accent he has in this movie. Or in his own deep-voiced, British accent. Whatever. It doesn't matter the accent as long as the camera is zoomed in on his lips.
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| The movie poster didn't do him enough justice. |
In all seriousness, Hardy is the VIP of this movie. I can't think of a movie that he wasn't absolutely brilliant. His Forest Bondurant, the savviest of the three, is the most interesting character, followed by Guy Pearce's Special Deputy Rakes. Too bad most of the movie is spent of the baby of the Bondurant brothers, Jack (Shia TheBeef). Despite the focus on the weakest of the main characters along with the misguided tone (I still don't know what the takeaway of the film was other than Tom Hardy and his lips are hot and Guy Pearce does creepy very well), Lawless is a lot of fun. Note: I'm not a Shia hater. It's just that I'm too much reminded of the Transformers movies whenever I see him. I haven't completely forgiven him yet.
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| Which explains this totally superfluous still from the movie. |
Gym Update: Last week, I was still recovering from a bad cold, so cardio and strength training was light. This week, I'm in for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It's happening. I'm back, so it has to happen. Or will it? (No, really, it will happen, otherwise some of my "readers" will bother the hell out of me.)
I just realized that most of this post has nothing to do with teaching. I'm okay with this. Next week, I'll give you more of a perspective on how year two is versus year one. I feel as busy, if not busier sometimes, as I did last year, but I'm handling it better. Maybe even welcoming it, which has much to do with what I see as my future in education, but more on that later.
For now, I'll close with this thought that I'm working on: To truly to be about the business of working with my scholars to make sure that they are the best they can be, that means they need to be provided with the best teachers that we can give them. Along with other variables, the best teachers are, in my opinion, confident in their abilities and their passion to work with kids. In addition, they have balanced lives and are able to take and implement constructive criticism to become the best teachers they can be.
I've been hyper-critical of some of the new teachers I work with. As a "mentor teacher" in our new teacher induction program, part of my job should be uplifting these new teachers, not only through observations and constructive criticism, but through positive words of encouragement and through helping them see the small successes everyday. I seriously live and teach by the credo that as long as my effort into my work and into helping my students averages out at 100% or more, my kids are learning and will be great, when all is said and done. Not everyday is a 100% or even a 90 or 80 percent day...and that's okay! Teaching and learning is not done in a single day; it happens over time. I want other teachers to see that everyday will not be homerun, and that there is at least a nugget of success that comes from everyday, even it is just a lesson learned on what not to do tomorrow.
So...here's to that nugget of success tomorrow and everyday afterward!
| He's definitely many nuggets of success! |
