Day -25

So on my planning time today I had to pack up my laptop, my LCD projector, and some dry-erase boards and markers. I drove a quarter-mile up the street to a school in the middle of Clifton Park for a second interview. The process was simple: teach a 20-minute demo lesson to a sixth grade class, then get interviewed by students, then get interviewed by staff at the school following a presentation of another lesson plan.

As I was packing up my stuff the kids started whispering. "Yo, he quittin'!" They got very quiet. "You leaving Mr. G?" they asked. "I'm only going to another school for an hour. I'll be back later." "Yo, he quittin'," I heard again.

The school I applied to is a charter run via Americorps and there were no kids in the halls running amuck. I saw plenty of hall monitors and there were a half-dozen volunteers on every floor moving around. I taught a group of sixth graders who were respectful, engaged, and curious. A couple of special ed kids in the general classroom had one-on-one paraprofessionals sitting next to them. There was another full-time special educator in the classroom as well (all of this is supposed to be the case at my school). I was observed by a couple of teachers as I used art and texts to teach the concept of literary tone. The kids wrote their responses on dry-erase boards. One girl asked "Can you be our teacher next year?"

I rushed through the next parts of the process and out the building so I could get back to the March for last period. Kids ran up and hugged me and said "we heard you quit after second period! We're so glad you're back!" Then they proceded to drive me up a wall for 45 minutes. At the end of class Nerdra asked me if I was leaving the March for next year, and I said "probably." She said "You just gonna dump us like that?" I said I needed to go somewhere where the kids want to learn, where I don't have to yell over them all the time. She replied: "You just need to see the beauty in that, is all."