Category Archives: blogs

First day of school

It’s the first day of school today. As a teaching intern, I attended the opening ceremony and observed the classes all day long. Students in 5C have ice-breaking activities and an introduction from the homeroom teacher. They set up the class routine and class etiquette. Basically, I feel tired now because I spent all day long in class interacting with students. I cherish I have the opportunity to participate in class as an observer and I occasionally reminded kids of their inappropriate behavior. I think that this group of kids is obedient and nice. Although I dislike the overweight of admin part of my internship, I feel lucky that I know most of the kids in 5C. Some of them remembered me, but since they were too little when I left the school, most kids who remember me are G6 and up. I feel happy to witness their growth.

Some reflection before the classes begin

I encountered a lot during this past week. I just wanted to list dome bullets in case I need to review them later.

  • Please cherish those teachers who are willing to devote themselves on teaching and teaching. 請珍惜每一位願意為學生付出的老師。
  • The basic rule for teachers: passion+ consciousness 一個老師的熱忱與良知。
  • When I looked back, I am grateful that I made a wise decision that I did not give up on the tough multimedia project 15 years ago. As a student, I legally had the right to drop the course. However, I had made my teacher work until 12 midnight solving the problem with me and walking me through the difficulties. I realized that it was definitely selfish if I dropped the course and just gave up. It would be harmful to a passionate teacher who has always been dedicated to teaching and learning and always helped students. Under the condition that she has cast her efforts, energy, and time on me, I was fortunate enough to overcome the difficulties and open the next chapter of my life bravely.
  • I am persistent and inquisitive. However, no matter how much tenacity I had, without the help and support from my beloved teacher, I would not be able to walk through the obstacles.
  • I firmly believe that the positive experience has become a foundation and invisible strength for me to carry on and build up new multimedia projects. Luckily, my past experience was not a fiasco that ended up sadly. I am the narrator who writes the script of her personal life story with gratitude and confidence.
  • Doing the right thing with integrity and treating people sincerely.

My first bulletin board

As I posted yesterday that my class will be filled with Rabbits, we are working on class prep and decoration. I have decorated my first bulletin board ever and fixed the clock in the classroom. It was a good start : )

Before I post this, the workers from the renovation company came and said that they haven’t finished building the bulletin board, so we need to remove all the decoration on the board. I was upset. However, I had no choice. All I need to do is to calm down and carry on. I will need to redo all this again tomorrow.

5C name tags & lunch issue

As we need to prepare name tags for students for their lockers and shoe shelf, we decided to apply my Rabbit as our class logo. I am the designer. I also customized them for boys and girls to help develop their gender orientation. As to Rabbit Grace, it is absolutely not to put that here in IIS! She is my teacher up there at I-Shou University. Well, I am so excited to see my kids’ reactions when they see the name tags. Our classroom will be filled with Rabbits, my masterpieces, haha. By the way, these kids are 11 years old. When I designed the Rabbit, they had not even been born yet. Their Chinese zodiac is Rabbit. What a coincidence! They are 24 years younger than me ><///.

Yesterday, the school announced that we will have lunch back in the cafeteria. As a teaching intern, I am worried that the school will ask me to pay for my lunch. I need some positive vibes for stopping them from asking me to pay. I think that it is a teacher’s basic benefit and welfare to learn and enjoy having lunch with the class.

“JUST DO THIS AND TEN THOUSAND OTHER THINGS”: A TEACHER’S BACK-TO-SCHOOL LAMENT by TOM LESTER

Just take a deep breath and remember to take care of yourself.

Just watch the ten-minute video on blood-borne pathogens and hope you never need to know this.

Just take a photo of your vaccination card and AirDrop it to your Mac.

Just convert the .heic file in your downloads folder to a PNG image.

Just upload it to your School Front account.

Just recover your lost password for School Front and reset it with another one you won’t remember.

Just remember to make a back-to-school video for the six parents who will watch it.

Just mention your agenda slideshow and the district’s new initiative to build communities through culturally-responsive teaching and learning.

Make it personal, but be professional. Just have fun with it!

Just update your online grade book in PowerSchool.

Just open the PDF and follow the seventeen steps.

Just do it again, for all of your classes.

Just create a new Google Classroom for all of your classes too.

Just migrate your rosters from PowerSchool.

Just be ready to stream your classes at a moment’s notice for students who won’t be there.

And remember to generate a fresh Meet link.

And don’t forget to update your agenda slideshow.

Just connect your Chromebook and microphone to the projector.

Just remember, HDMI 1 is broken, but HDMI 2 should be okay.

Just take a deep breath and troubleshoot before you call IT for help.

Just remember to press “8” for a dial tone and hope you never need help in a real emergency.

Just take a deep breath.

Just watch the school safety video before Friday. It’s only thirty-five minutes.

Just don’t stop watching, or you’ll have to start the whole thing over.

Don’t forget to take the quiz at the end, and remember to upload your back-to-school video to YouTube.

Just wake up early.

And drink more water.

Just drop your sons off as soon as daycare opens.

Just remember their lunches and make sure their shoes match.

Just say “I love you,” but don’t think about it too much.

And don’t be weird in front of their friends.

Just get to the high school on time.

Just form relationships with your students.

Just have fun! And play more games!

Just gently remind David to wear his mask properly for the fifth time.

Just smile when you ask him to remove his size-twelve Jordans from his neighbor’s desk.

Just remember to wipe off the desk before the next class.

Just email his mother.

Just balance flexibility with rigor.

Just make sure the rigor isn’t too stressful.

Just cover relevant topics, even when the news is uncomfortable.

Just make sure everyone is always comfortable.

Just prepare for EVERYTHING that could possibly go wrong.

Because it could.

And don’t forget to restock the hand sanitizer.

Just take a deep breath and remember to carve out time to take care of yourself.

Just drink more water.

Just process current events so you can immediately craft a meaningful lesson that helps students make sense of things like school shootings and armed insurrection.

Just process it all faster.

Just cover both sides.

Just photocopy the articles again. This time, both sides. Both sides.

Just go to the bathroom. How much water have you been drinking?

Just get to the bathroom.

Just wait for the bathroom.

Just fix the copy machine that jammed while you were in the bathroom.

Just let Mike from math do some copies. He’ll be quick. He only has a few.

Just smile and “do chatting” as he jams the machine again.

Just fix the copier when he finally gives up.

Just google “full-time photocopier repair, salary” and “how else can I make money?”

Just create a digital copy of the photocopy and post a link to it on your new agenda slideshow.

Just be sure to post the link to the digital copy of the photocopy on the stream in Google Classroom in case everyone ignores your agenda slideshow.

Just explain to your students why you haven’t finished grading their papers.

Just respond to the reply from David’s mom. Make sure your tone doesn’t reveal how angry it makes you when he throws paper balls at the wall and how his attention-seeking outbursts ruin any group activity you’ve designed to foster more interpersonal connections.

Just accentuate his positive behavior.

Just remember he’s her son when she asks to continue this exchange over the phone.

Just take a deep breath. And drink a gallon of water.

Just eat lunch as quickly as possible.

Just don’t tell your colleagues that you went to Home Depot last night to buy cinder blocks and bricks to store in your classroom so that you’ll have something heavy to throw at a shooter. Don’t tell them you’ve already picked out which kids will be helpful during a real emergency. David, with his size-twelve Jordans, will be one of them.

Just don’t think about how long you’ve been teaching—and the numbers and statistics—and how your luck may be running out.

Just don’t imagine your own sons, framed by the big window of the cafeteria where they eat the lunches you made for them. Definitely don’t think about their little shoes.

Just take a deep breath.

And remember to call David’s mom.

Know that he is her son and that he was little too, not long ago, like your own sons.

Just hope that your sons have teachers who think of all these things.

Reference: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/just-do-this-and-ten-thousand-other-things-a-teachers-back-to-school-lament?fbclid=IwAR3HcJ_XebPfIHacmj-2xEy8VS44E-0hdrfGQrq6T5RT0bR4VWuc8-VCrS4