Business as Usual
Having been in the class for such a long haul at this point classroom management was no longer much of a chore. I knew my typical hot spots and powder kegs so just had to watch them, and the class was pretty manageable.
So did this mean my big comic book crossover event had puttered out into a lame succession of typical Batman patrols dealing with mere ordinary thugs and crooks? Well turns out this was leading to a bigger confrontation then you'd think.
The Substitute
Our associate had a conference to go to in the middle of the week meaning me and my partner got to work with a substitute teacher. This was a very rewarding experience as it illustrated why one may or more to the point may NOT want to have such a job. It was also nice to see a different teaching and management strategy then we'd been exposed to.It also meant that many of our established trouble makers felt a little flexibility in acting up. Not on this student teachers watch. In typical Batman crossover fashion I suddenly had some interesting "small scale" incidents suddenly boil over into kinda big deals.
Main force was the girl "gang". Their ring leader decided to push the boundaries (mostly due to our associate giving the "gang" a bit too much leniency compared to the boys in my opinion). She didn't tangle with the teacher team for too long getting close to a parent's worth of ticks (two from me and the critical one from the sub).
This was just the warm up for the big hit of the crossover. Unfortunately it was a BIG hit too. So maybe I shoulda gone with the marvel civil war comparison...
Last Assessment
Our program supervisor came out for a last look at our progress in the classrooms on Thursday. Though my teaching and student interactions were in her own words "excellent" there was one factor I had a weakness in, and has now led to life altering changes to my continuity.
My written planning was not up to college standards. Ironic that I have this great pic of Ink killing Batman Beyond. As my written planning could kill me in school if I don't improve it.
Despite this lingering plot point overall my assessment was very good. My actually implementation of lessons and dealing with the kids are in the top of the class.
However sadly placement does mimic a good crossover by having a lasting effect and threat in the life of our hero... I need to work on my written planning or I may not make it out of my book may not survive the next placement
Aftermath
The last day was good. Pretty easy going for me and my placement partner. Our associate handled all but one lesson. This lesson happened to be me reading the class the completed version of my story. It was a hit and generated a lot of discussion. Both the kids and my associate were a little blown away when I brought up that I had a part in the making of the book.
A good wrap up for the crossover. However my "Blight" is still out there (Blight is Batman Beyonds main arch enemy for those of you who don't know much of Terry Macgenus' exploits). Fortunately the course supervisor wasn't too surprised by this development in my progress. Apparently there's one of me in every year so I've started one on one clinics with her to try and fix the problem.
The End?
Well although this placement is over two more remain in the "future" (unfortunate I had to resort to my Batman Beyond theme already).
As for the classic Adam West style "The End?" with a question mark. One of the indirect causes of my lack of lack of planning was the busyness of my associate, and how we student teachers were second thoughts to her. The End? refers to how she asked us not to say anything about our leaving the school till the end of the day, and her then at the promptly dismissing the class. Meaning none of the students knew we were going to be gone...
Oh well I don't do this for the gratitude. I'm Batman after all. Okay not really. That did kinda suck. I just say the Batman bit to try and cheer myself up.
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