Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010 4:35 p.m.
the "celebrity" of teaching
A couple weeks ago, I went back to the school I taught at for two weeks at the beginning of this year to pick up everything I left in the classroom with Mr. Miller. I got there RIGHT as school was getting out and got to push through hallways crowded with my former students. Granted, they may have only been my students for 2 weeks, but still, I was once "Mrs. P" to them.
Sure enough, some of them recognized me. And asked what I was doing there. And if I missed them. And if I remembered their names. And why I no longer taught there and why I was back.
I left that school for the very unique job I have now. I love my job. I still teach, but it is so different than normal teaching. I have students that attend my class on a consistent basis. I know they attend because I see their login in the participants window. I know they hear me talk because I see their responses in the chat window, or their writing on the virtual whiteboard. They send me emails and every once in a while, I allow them to speak on the mic and I get to hear their voice.
I know their personalities and which students will volunteer to answer every question and which will tell me they don't understand how to do anything. It's funny the things to learn about your students that you don't even have to teach yourself. You just absorb little bits of who they are. I know who wants to be the teacher's pet; who tries to be the show-off, who really does not want to be there.
But I have no clue what my students look like.
They are located throughout all of California. It could be snowing outside some of my students "classrooms" and bright and sunny and 75 degrees outside some of my others.
I kind of like that I don't know what my students look like. I have no unnecessary bias to judge them. I don't subconsciously think the overweight ones are lazy or the pretty blond ones ditzes. I think nothing about them apart from what they show me in my online classes or tutoring sessions.
And even though it is completely different, I still feel that same "celebrity-ness" that comes with being a teacher, even in an online realm. They hear my voice everyday, they get to know my personality. I joke, they laugh, I explain something, they (sometimes) get it - that makes me feel significant. 14 yr. olds want to win prizes such as "win a hand-written postcard from Mrs. P", just because it's something tangible from me, this mysterious virtual teacher out there.
They may not know what I look like (well, I do have a picture up in my class intro), or where I live, or what my clothing style is, and I don't claim that all of them will remember me as they go through life...but I do think that some of them will.
And that's one of the really cool things about being a teacher.
Thursday, Aug. 03, 2017 - hello?Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 - strange dream
Monday, Oct. 06, 2014 - catholic and friends
Thursday, Sept. 04, 2014 - changing. and I need to go to bed.
Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014 - dreams of dying
Chapters of My Life
Motherhood
Sept. 2011 - now Being a mother.
Isolation&Infertility (&pregnancy)
Aug. 2009 - Sept. 2011 Working from home in a job that I love...that comes with a loneliness I hate. A husband who works too much, and continued failure to start a family. Slowly spiraling, forgotten, into social invisibility. Accepting and experiencing the potential of pregnancy.
First-Year Teacher
Aug. 2008 - Aug. 2009. pretty much the hardest job I hope I ever have. and all the while trying not to admit my secret turmoil over longings for/attempts at/failure to produce what's supposedly supposed to come after love and then marriage...
Optimism
Aug. 2007 - Aug. 2008. finally accepting that becoming a normal grown up is not just inevitable, but preferable. better job situations for both of us. working freelance as a studio teacher, and becoming an egg donor.
Fading Dreams...
Dec. 2006 - July 2007. student teaching, being poor, consistent job rejections, trying to save face while feeling hopeless.
To Live a Life Worth Death...
July 2006 - Nov. 2006. thinking about death a lot, accepting life and my eventual end. career and passions - beginning the path of contribution to what I will leave behind...
Identity Crisis/Marriage
Oct. 2005 - Apr. 2006. new job. new career. new last name. new husband. new life. who was I and what was I becoming?
The Official End to Childhood? II
June 2005 - Sept. 2005. preparing for a life that still felt like pretend. was I really a 'grown-up' already? weird.
The Official End to Childhood? I
Feb. 2005 - June 2005. losing my virginity, getting engaged, changing my career, selling our childhood home...slowly losing everything that held me as a child... (Meet Mr. Mom 4/05 - 5/05. working/travelling on production of my 4th & LAST reality show ever.)
Quarter-Life Crisis/Unemployment
Sept. 2004 - Feb 2005. no steady job for 5 months - definitely not a good place to be. oh, and I fell in love - which is a good place to be, but it kind of only adds to the confusion.
Postlude to the Prelude
Apr. 2004 - May 2004. I had no clue what things were being set in motion...but everything has changed from there.
The Simple Life 2
Mar. 2004-Apr. 2004. not the deepest thinking period of my life, but I learned a heck of a lot about production of a reality tv show.
L.A. #2 - The Real World
Aug. 2003-Feb. 2004.the big move. transplanting my life. ironically not only working in the "real world", but also AT the company that makes The Real World.
That Weird, Here Nor There, Summer
May 2003-Aug. 2003. a college graduate, but not yet in the grown-up world. just existing. and waiting. and thinking.
Goodbye College
Jan. 2003-May 2003. it's a weird thing, the last semester of college. lots of thinking about what lies beyond.
The Semester From Hell
Aug. 2002-Dec. 2002. it was kind of like I tried to cram 4 yrs. of growing-up experiences into one semester.
I've Changed?
Apr. 2002-Aug. 2002. after L.A. and stuck right in-between the two most intense "finding-myself" semesters of my life!
L.A. #1 - Interning/Discovering
Jan. 2002 - Apr. 2002. I finally stepped WAY outside my comfort zone and went where I had no freakin idea what I was doing. Living outside your bubble for awhile really makes you see differently.
Beginnings/Depression
Aug. 2001-Jan. 2002. who I was, and sometimes who I still am. how it started and how it was before.