Entry 2

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12

Date: 8/26/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Tuesdays and Thursdays are more of my planning days than anything since my responsibilities of teaching do not start until 11:30 and the only classes I teach are upper school PE and middle school PE.    However, since we have an away volleyball game in Roanoke and required to depart from school early, I have to divide my time into planning and getting ready for the game today. A basic summary of my time from 7:45 am to 11:30 am includes: preparing presentations for Sports Medicine and AP Statistics, running paper copies needed for classes, uploading all information onto edline for the next days class, responding to e-mails, making sure all girls are in representative dress for the game and have uniforms to change into, confirming our transportation schedule, printing rosters/line-up cards, assigning girls to different jobs for the game (book, stats, etc.), responding to parents' texts about the game, and figuring out what I'm going to do since my JV coach decided she was not going to the game (which left me by myself for both JV and Varsity teams). Then it was time for my PE class to start.

Since I had already received the e-mail about my students having to take school pictures today right in the middle of class. I thought it was best that we didn't participate in physical activity today, instead we talked about current events in the sporting world. The rest of the class was consumed of picture day shenanigans. 

Middle school PE is always a blast at the end of the day, but this is a different group than I had yesterday. So once again, it was physical fitness day which was followed by mounds of complaining. 

Reflection about Today’s Activities:

Despite how organized and prepared I am for certain events, I tend to find myself having to work around unforeseen obstacles. These obstacles turn into mounds of anxiety, but I have no choice but to work through it with a smile. I will not let my students or athletes see anything but positivity and optimism since I have learned they feed off of me. I often feel overwhelmed with the pressure of being a good teacher and responding to the schools demands of being a customer service school, single handedly building the volleyball program the past 6 years with very little support from the school/parents, being a responsive wife that has responsibilities around the house/farm, and trying to finish my masters degree while juggling all of the above. I know this was supposed to be a reflection about today's activities, but my thoughts took over and it felt better writing about it than actually letting it effect me. I've learned that being a teacher/coach/wife/student means that you have mastered the art of multi-tasking and not everything is going to go according to plan. I've accepted that I will not always get it right, but trying to improve means more than failing.