Getting ready to go into schools

I had my orientation for my student teaching today.  It was 30 minutes of being told things we should already know followed by 30 minutes of not being told what we want to know.

It was necessary for them to state that we should either lock our FB accounts all the way down or remove our drunken party pictures...  They also felt it was necessary to tell us not to bitch about our mentor teachers at the bar where another teacher from the school could over hear and get us kicked out of the practicum. 

But, they couldn't tell us what time our schools start their day, or what the dress code is...  You know, things that are actually useful. 

However, there was alot of reassurance that they would be there to hold our hands.  I guess I feel relieved that there is a whole team of people who's job it is to make sure that I feel good about myself and build confidence when things get tough.  Somehow, it seems like an extraordinary amount of support for the teachers of tomorrow.  Almost too much...

I am often stunned by the questions my fellow "pre-service" teachers ask.  The presenter could have recorded himself saying "it's on the website" and saved himself alot of trouble.  I swear that many of them never even try to find the information for themselves.  And they are questions that by themselves seem reasonable, "How will we be evaluated?" except that there have been a good 6 e-mails that have gone out telling us exactly where to look to find the answers to such questions.  I think the best one was "How do they determine our letter grade for the course?"  Sure - that one wasn't directly answered on the field experience website. But - it's a pass fail class.  It's labeled as such in the calendar.  There are many more examples daily that make me cringe. 

Now I just need to survive the next 4 weeks.  That's all that's left.  My last final is on Nov 7th!  Between now and then I have 8 papers due, 2 45 minute long presentations, a taped "micro-teaching" experience, and 3 final exams.  And I now lose my Fridays, which had been free to work on stuff, to in school observations.  I think my family isn't going to see much of me for the next little while.