Welcome Back to Reality!

So, I'm back at school. We jumped in to classwork and intense conversation and content right away. I'm already tired! However, I am enjoying my placement thus far. My teacher is very enthusiastic, and the students - although quite loud and sometimes quite distracted - are lots of fun. Having visited the classroom only four times, I can not accurately predict how the year will unfold, but I have good feelings about all this. I videotaped my teacher on the first day to capture initial procedures, rules, and conduct. I haven't done much teaching myself yet, so I have had a lot of time to observe things, and I am frequently reminded of this course. I immediately noticed the amount of students carrying and sometimes using cell phones during the school day. I brought this up to a few of the kids today, and they said cell phones were not allowed in the classroom at all. This surprised me because I have seen my teacher tell the students to "Put the phone away or it's mine." on numerous occasions. Her reaction made me believe they were allowed but not for use. Personally, I am tempted to check my phone when the students are doing work, but on the flip side I get annoyed and a bit offended when the students are playing around with their techie toys during my time. I have also been checking out the software and machines available around the school. My teacher hasn't used any technology at all except for a very old c.d. player during an exercise that required students to bring in music that exemplified literary terms. I've noticed multiple computer labs around the school (3 I think) and numerous televisions. In the coming weeks I will keep my eyes sensitive to other forms of technology I see around Romulus. I will also cross my fingers for the students to magically become less talkative!