Taylor Teaches

Hi everyone! You may remember me from when I was sick with mono. Don't worry, I survived it. I did have a Facebook status from around that time that said, "All I do is sleep," though, so you can tell it was rough.

Anyway, in a surprise change-up, I went from living with Teener to living with Teener's parents! They are really mean to me, and even shut off the vents in my room in an attempt to freeze me to death. Haha, just kidding! They are actually very nice to me, except for occasionally going on vacation to Florida and not inviting me.

My sentiments exactly, Stephanie. 

Anyway, the reason that I'm living with them is because I (temporarily) have a job very near where her parents live! How coincidental! Except not, because the job was long-term subbing for Teener's sister. So essentially, I took Maureen's job AND am living with her parents. It's like I stole her life.

This is the image I found when I Googled "Life-Stealer." Eerie, because this is the exact face I made when some of my juniors thought that personification could be a motif.

The long-term subbing is over, but I am still working at the school until Christmas break as a graduate assistant--which means that I fill in for teachers who are gone, supervise lunch, grade lots of things, help organize events, and tutor kids after school and sometimes during lunch. It's way less fun than teaching, but I'm happy to still be at the school because I love it there. I could literally talk to you all day non-stop about my kids and how much I love them, but I'm pretty sure that non-educators get bored of those stories, so instead I will just tell you my top five most exciting things that happened while I was teaching. Like a highlight reel, if I will. 

Which I will. I'm counting down even though these are in no particular order of excitement.

Ms. Glinski, reuniting families since 2013.

5. I made a mom cry at parent-teacher conferences.

It wasn't full-fledged crying, more like teary eyes, but still. And it also wasn't for bad things! She was crying because I was telling her a sweet story about how her son bought me cheesecake for my birthday. Apparently, she felt that she had been neglecting him recently, and my story reminded her that she really did love him after all.

4. I got to teach history!

American studies, to be exact. This might not sound exciting to some people, but since history was my second certification and I didn't student teach in it, it was a really good experience. I found out that I love it and that I would be willing to teach it as a for real, permanent teacher. My favorite thing was having debates. Being a history teacher also helped me bond with one of the juniors I had for English, since he is crazy about history and especially about America. At first, I was worried this kid was going to be trouble, but then he told me about his passionate love for Herbert Hoover, and now we are besties. (He's still wrong, though. Hoover sucks.)

I also enjoyed encouraging them to laugh at the expense of fat historical figures.

3. I chaperoned a school dance. 

Not school appropriate TBH

It was the Halloween dance. I somehow got roped into promising my juniors that if enough of them bought tickets, I would dress up and they could pick my costume. They decided I would have to be Hamida, a character from the book we were reading at the time. If you've never read Midaq Alley, just know that Hamida runs away to become a prostitute. Luckily, not enough of them bought tickets, so I just got to attend as myself.

2.  I got to welcome in a new class of freshman. 

Answer: Not unless that Egyptian time-traveled here from 3000 BCE.

This was fun because new freshman are hilarious. They are so excited and sweet and it's fantastic. They are also ridiculous. My freshman were probably the ones who were the most dedicated to me, because they had never met Maureen, so the transition was kind of traumatizing for them. One of them told me, "I'm going to tell Ms. Convery you're my favorite teacher so she feels awkward." I think Maureen won her over by promising free writes during journal time, though--freshman allegiance is fairly easy to obtain. Another welcomed Maureen on her first day by saying "I hate the new teacher" while he was unaware she was in the room. (They hasn't actually met yet, so she was more amused than offended.) And, on an unrelated note, one asked me during class if Egyptian people still write in hieroglyphics.
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1. I had many, many going-away parties. (Even though I was staying.)
Kids brought cookies, balloons, cupcakes, cards, etc. It was overwhelming and cute and very difficult not to cry. Like I said, these kids were super fantastic and amazing, and I kind of wish I could just freeze us all in time and keep them forever. Now that I'm a grad and I have more free time, that's actually the project I'm working on, when I'm not blogging. Well, either that or I watched like 6 episodes of "The Following" today.