I AM MOSTLY HEALTHY WOO!
. . .
That may seem like an odd thing to celebrate without context. For the past week (since last Friday), I have been sick as a dog. It started in earnest Friday night, and for the next several days, I woke up with fevers in the triple digits that stayed in the triple digits, even after taking Tylenol, ibuprofen, and NyQuil (not all at the same time).
For the first time in five years, I called in sick for work. For the first time ever, I called in sick from student teaching-- THREE TIMES. The sixth graders were doing summaries and I missed it. The seventh graders were doing teleplays (The Monsters are Due on Maple Street) and I missed almost all of it! That sucked.
The Tylenol bottle said that if a fever lasted more than three days, I should go see a doctor. I tried on day four, but couldn't get an appointment when my family could take me. Finally went on Tuesday, and the doc diagnosed me with a bacterial lung infection that may or may not have been pneumonia, and she gave me Azithromycin.Now I'M ON TOP OF THE WORLD.
I went back to school on Thursday. Student teaching is going great. My mentor is amazing, the kids are brilliant, and my supervisor observed me yesterday and said I'm displaying credit-worthy competence and suggested I take on another class so I can stretch out a bit, try new things, and get ready for the PACT. In his report email (the written reflection and notes from his observation that gets sent to me, my mentor, and the vice principal of the school I'm at), he said:
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"I have been so impressed with the skill and savvy that Zeph has brought to her teaching of ZephMentor’s 4th period 7th grade English class and of his 6th period 6th grade English class that I have asked her, with ZephMentor’s permission, to teach both the 5th and 6th period English 6 classes when I next observe her on Wed Oct 7th (see “Next Obs” in the upper right hand corner of my observational notes).
I also suggested to Zeph and ZephMentor that it might be a good idea to have Zeph teach both 5th and 6th period classes during her PACT week. This could be done either with or without Zeph’s teaching her 4th period 7th grade English class during this week. I could see advantages either way. Mostly, it would provide Zeph with the opportunity to do a “dry run” of each of her five “PACT” classes before she teaches “the class that counts,” as it were.
Given Zeph’s high level of competence as a beginning teacher, I’m certain that her 6th and 7th grade students, or her 6th grade only students, would benefit either way."
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I HAVE FOOLED HIM INTO THINKING I AM COMPETENT.
Guys, this is sooooo different from last semester. My mentor is so kind and brilliant and helpful and actually talks to me. My supervisor is from the English department, not the. . . whatever department my old one was from (I wanna say sociology), so he knows the ins and outs of teaching kids ELA, and I jjust want to explode with happiness.
Also, my sister found another kitten. This one is orange. His name is Twee.
I'm so happy. I don't know. I have so much work to do right now (gotta finish grading book projects, gotta write my PACT some more, gotta do homework for University classes), but I'm just chill.
Everything is pretty okay.