Monday, June 30, 2008

The Desks Have Turned


Remember how I said I got that job? At that (Johnny) Quest Learning Center? The one where I had to teach kids how to draw comics? Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth graders? Four hours a week? Each day is an hour? Scared to death? Do you remember? Ah you probably don't. But if you do, I'm here to tell you... TODAY WAS MY FIRST DAY!

HOORAY! Little kids' minds are now mine for the molding.

Today I had lil' 5th and 6th graders to deal with. I started my class with standard teacher stuff such as a summary of the class along with a review of my classroom rules. Yes, I made up my own classroom rules. Yknow, I think I've always liked the idea teaching... not only do I get to spread my knowledge to eager scouts (hah), but I also get to say to my past teachers, "THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE!". I also get to appear knowledgeably superior.

I realized that the whole hour I was in the room with the slightly routy bunch was very... analogous to actual Comiclub meetings that I have at Whitney. There were only a few minor differences.

Comiclub -VS- Comic Class

No word combos: Yeah, big ol' high school students can understand what Comiclub means (despite people asking it as "Commi" Class), but small youn' element kids? Would they GET "Comiclass"? What if they read it as "Com Iclass"? Or "Comicle Ass"? OR WHAT IF they just didn't get it all?! Actually they'd probably get it, but for professional purposes, I seperated the words. Because I'm OH SO professional.

HYPER ACTIVITY: Quest is sorta set up like a jail: the kids can travel throughout the building, but THEY CANNOT LEAVE. They also have their meals there, presumably eating gruel... sandwiches, gruel omelette's. Nothing but gruel. Plus, they can eat their own hair. These kids are at Quest all day, so they can get pretty restless... and hyper. At Whitney, we're usually just really tired... and dead, almost zombie-like.

I have to write on the white board: I suck at writing at the white board.

Powah: For Comiclub, it's difficult to order people around dictatorally (dictatidly? dictatationally? dictatorly? dictatadorkalelly.) because I don't have much authority. At Quest? Easy peasy. In the beginning of class, a kid picked up a chair for whatever reason and I was all "HEY... put that down..." and SHAZAM HE DID! Okay, I could probably do that at Whitney too, but still; these kids, to some extent, fear me. HAHA okay, not really FEAR me, but I have the power to threaten them with time outs and calls home. If the classroom were a boat, it would be a dictatorship - I am the captain.

Sos yeahs! First day of being a teacher was really not that bad. My favorite part of the hour was when I asked "Who likes drawing?", and almost everyone raised their hand. That made everything A LOT easier because the kids will be more willing to work. Although I dunno what I'll do with those who don't like drawing. JUST REMEMBER KEVIN, they're more afraid of you than you are of them.

The best part of this whole thing is my teacher name: I have them call me "Mr. K". MUAHAHA, IS THAT MYSTERIOUS OR WHAT?! Very super hero-esque if I do say so myself.