"Mr. Gray, you goin to be teachin me this period?"

It has been about a week and a half since I started teaching, and I can already say that I really do love it. The lesson planning, organizing, and preparing part... Eh, not so much. It's hard at times to think of activities or innovative strategies to get a simple point across in American History. As I remember it, my teachers engrossed our class with descriptive and exciting stories that lasted for an entire hour. We sat, we listened, and we were evelloped in the lesson. Wait, I was enveloped. It has taken me until now to realize that not all people learn like me. Yes, I knew that some students react better to auditory lessons, and others to visual lessons, but the concept really hadn't sunk in. It's hard to appeal to different students, especially ones with varying skill levels and overall different educational capacities. There is always room for improvements, and for now, this is where I must alter my lesson plans dramatically. While, in my opinion, I could lecture for hours effectively, the students can't listen and retain a mass of information for more than ten to twenty minutes. This isn't college, and at times, I feel as if that is what I am teaching according to my lesson plans. Other than these few minor problems, I'm going to have to say I've crushed it!

I have one student in my American History class. The summer school is set up for most students that have either failed, or need further improvement in certain subject areas mainly including English and Math. Other than the classroom management aspect of REAL teaching, I feel as if I am successfully preparing myself for August through the program. For all of you non-MTC'ers, they call this "thing" a program. I call it a JOB. J-O-B. We wake up at 5:45. We board a big yellow school bus at 6:40. We arrive in Holly Springs at 7:30. We prepare for the day and organize all of our materials for our upcoming lessons. We teach four periods from 8:00 to 12:30. We arrive back in Oxford around 1:45 or so. We attend class from 2:00 to 4:00. We sometimes have meetings from 6:00 to 7:00. Then our nights begin. They are subsequently filled with lesson planning, homework, test making, activity creating, blogging, and passing out. Only for around 5 hours though, so don't get too comfortable. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. Wake up, and do it again. It's greeeeaaaatttttt! Seriously though, I hate myself in the morning. No, seriously, I love the program. The people are incredible, the teachers are interesting and hillarious, the administration is motivating, and most importantly the students are awesome. It's really cool when after only a week of teaching, a student looks you in the face and excitedly asks you, "Mr. Gray, you goin to be teachin me this period?" I sure am Johnny the Kid, I sure am.