September 4, 2007

It was an inauspicious way to begin the week. I arrived to my mobile classroom (trailer) to find that it had been vandalized this weekend. Fortunately the vandals did not try to break into the room, but instead only graffitied it. Mine was not the only one, all four trailers were victims of "too much free time" of some (I assume) local youths. What is interesting is that the graffiti was political and reflected social issues instead of your typical profanity and tagging. Their epithets were primarily critical of education. "You're blind," "Tune out," "miseducation." There were other, many of which had already begun the cleaning process so I am not entirely sure what they said. But I must say, I am impressed by this form of graffiti. I must honestly say, I have never see what appeared to political social graffiti before. It shows me that there are some socially conscious students out there who have a clue. Unfortunately they chose this means of expressing their discontentedness. Additionally, the principal was out until 10pm last night spraying down the graffiti in order to get rid of some of the worst expression, which did include profanity and names. That is quite a bit of dedication, which no one can argue about the principal, if nothing else, he is definitely dedicated to the students and the educational process. His goal yesterday was to minimize the distraction of school this morning. And I must say, he was successful, I did not have to answer a single question today in class about the graffiti.

Otherwise, the day ran by smoothly. I am very comfortable with the World History Curriculum. So much so that I am having no problem keeping up with the pace so as to get as far through the 20th century (hopefully into the 21st century) as possible. I am getting more comfortable with the Civics and Economics Curriculum, which can be expected with the more times I teach the course. Mind you, I am very comfortable with the content, it is the specific curriculum and foci that shape the context of the content. Always a challenge that I welcome - developing better and more efficient ways of presenting the dense material required of a Social Studies course while still trying to make it interesting. The process is full of disappointments as well as satisfaction. Disappointment when well laid plans do not go according to plan or when what seems like a good idea actually bombs in when put to a class. Satisfaction when the time and energy pays off in the form of a fun and engaging lesson that the students participate in and show genuine interest. This is what make teaching worth while. A teacher who sits back and uses the same plans year after year without updating or coming up with new ideas becomes unhappy in a hurry and creates a downward spiral because the student pick up on it.