Underwhelmed

A lot of my fellow TFA-ers seem to be drowning right now in the amount of work they have to do right now...lesson planning, making tests, grading papers, checking homework, etc.  For me, the only way I can describe how I've felt is underwhelmed.  I don't have tests to give or grades to track...and half of the lessons I write I have to throw out the window last minute when I find out that there's a big test coming up in one of their classes or I realize half my students don't know their multiplication tables.  It sounds ridiculous, to complain that I don't have enough to do, but it's more that I'm feeling a little helpless.  

My role as a teacher is so undefined.  I don't teach one particular subject, so I feel like it's my job to make sure my students do well in all of their subjects.  This would be perfectly reasonable if I taught a self-contained class and I saw these kids all day, but I only see them one or two periods out of the day! Not to mention how difficult it is for me to know what they are doing in Science, History, and English at all times when I am never in those classes.   I need to narrow down the focus of my class so we're not so all over the place (especially since there is no possible way I could help them with biology or chemistry anyway), but I still haven't quite figured out how to do this.  

On a somewhat lighter note, today's "Do Now" was "Write about what you imagine your life will be like 10 years from now."  Second period talked about how they wanted to be vets, lawyers, basketball players, therapists, etc.  Seventh period: "I'm going to be a drug lord and make mad money.  No seriously, you need to know chemistry and math to be good at that.  Those are the only two classes I'm passing."  This, by the way, was the first time Jay has ever actually done the Do Now.

The rest of the period I fought to get them to prepare for midterms.  Jack (who, as tough as he pretends to be, is a big teddy bear), spent the period trying to come up with names for Carolyn's baby, and JT took the highlighter I gave him to help him focus on his test and drew little yellow polka dots all over his entire history test (this was the third day he was working on the test).  Arnelle is finally back in school after being absent for almost two weeks, and I realized today that she went from passing all of her classes to only passing gym and Resource (which doesn't even count as a credit for graduation).  Midterms are next week, and grades are due on the 31st.  There are no words to describe how nervous I am for my students!!