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Back and tagged!

Back from one trip - off to another tomorrow morning.

Teaching Meme - tagged by hipteacher

1. I am a good teacher because... I really like most of my students and want them to go on to happy lives filled with cozy homes, babies and jobs they enjoy. I also truly believe that literature and poetry are part of what makes life worth living. Plus, I think grammar jokes are hysterical.

2. If I weren't a teacher, I would be... a corporate flunkie? a professional nanny? a writer?

3. My teaching style is... nagging? I'm sure that's what my student would say. I think I'd have to say variable. With some classes, it's almost collaborative. With others it's almost authoritarian... hey, I'll admit it... I don't know if I really have a specific style yet. I'm still in the process of developing it.

4. My classroom is... a trapezoid. One wall is full of windows. Sadly it looks into the courtyard. The teacher across the hall has windows that display a forest full of critters. Last year, they all got a "sex in nature" show when a buck jumped a doe who happened by. We did however, see a bird build it's nest. I also have one wall that exposed wood - like paneling, but made of real wood. This is the only wall that I can hang anything on. I'm hoping to get an author mural painted on a wall this fall.

5. My lesson plans... are well thought out in the early part of the semester. They tend to go missing during the middle and I write them cryptically afterwards.

6. One of my teaching goals is…to be a really effective teacher. And maybe one day have a book dedicated to me, thanking me for forcing him/her to read the Christmas Carol in Dickensian English.

7. The toughest part of teaching is... having my heart broken by kids who just don't make it and decide to leave.

8. The thing I love most about teaching is... I almost never dread going to school. I might dread something I have to do, but never actually going to work. Also, I get to shop for new "school clothes" and school supplies every year.

9. A common misconception about teaching is... teachers don't know anything about the "real world." Just because I believe that the world can be a much better place doesn't mean that I'm unaware of how much it isn't.

10. The most important thing I've learned since I started teaching... only life and death are life and death. Everything else is gravy.

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