Thursday, August 23, 2007

Those coaches were H.O.T. And married.

Today I did some teaching to teachers. That's always a little nerve wracking, because, well, they know what you SHOULD be doing. I'm not sure I even know what I SHOULD be doing half the time. Also, I knew every participant would be filling out a detailed evaluation of my skills based on my performance during the sessions.

Eesh.

I mentioned something about my nerves to the teacher whose room I was using, and she waved it off dismissively. "They're just coaches. Let them cut up, and you'll be fine. Intellectual powerhouses they are not."

Ooooh Kay.

It was fun. I did my little training, acted silly, let them know I was available for (FREE!) guest lessons for their health classes, and boogied on out of there just in time for the crisis pregnancy center to waltz in and set up their fancy dancy equipment for their horribly cheesy "oh NOES THE INTERNETS ARE RUINING OUR KIDS!" presentation.

(Why do THEY have up-to-date laptops and sound systems and projectors while I have three freaking pieces of easel paper, anyway?)

The only real thing that I've been a little disappointed with in this job so far is that the program evaluations to date have been a little weak. People haven't really been giving me the love. Mind you, the people filling them out have been a) probation officers b) youth reporting to their probation officers c) middle schoolers who were being kept from games and made to speak about things that are uncool and potentially embarrassing, and d) people running afterschool programs that are focused on keeping the kids in line through lots of yelling. So I'd been taking those evals with a grain of salt.

By the by, did I mention that this morning I had to be 40 miles away from my house by 7 a.m.? Yeah. I know. That's why I no longer AM a school teacher.

Back to the evals. The health teachers I worked with today provided me with fifty STELLAR evaluations, and many are already putting their rezzies in for me to go to their schools.

Finally getting some respect around here!