Esme tells us of her classroom activities: Halloween, a visit from an author, and her Cajun Christmas assembly skit. Esme tries to stop her classroom library books from disappearing by requiring that kids leave her a shoe when they want to read a book.
We get an insight into Esme's chilhood as she tells us the origin of her moniker, "Madame Esme." We find that Esme was raised in a text-rich environment, which was not always appreciated by those around her.
Throughout these pages, Esme's nemesis-principal escalates his harrassment and disapproval of Esme's methods. On page 52, Esme says to Mr. Turner, "'I don't work for you, I work for the children.'"
...what a great place to start our discussion! See you Tuesday, Feb. 17, in the Board Room.
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I have tutoring at Churchill after school on Tuesday so I wanted to get my thoughts on here. When I first read these passages about Esme during November and December I felt like I could just sense her stress level and anxiety. Obviously, kids are more wound up during that time as they start their mental count downs until christmas break. But this period of time is even more pivotal for a first year teacher. When a first year teacher comes in during August, September, and Octobeter they are usually filled with ideas and visions of how their classes will work. It is right around the winter time that a lot of beginning teachers get a bit of a reality check on what kind of job this can sometimes be. I still remember this feeling during my first year teaching. It was like the beginning of the year went by in a second and was filled with new experiences. However, after getting a few months in I never again felt like a "new teacher" anymore...mostly because I never had time to.
ReplyDeleteThough we had a small crowd at our last meeting, we had a very nice discussion about the ways that new teachers seem to do an awful lot during their first year or two of teaching. That's why these are not mandatory meetings! We also talked about a teacher's move from the "Honeymoon" stage to the "Reality" stage. Generally, it happens fr most of use about the same time that Esme describes - go figure!
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