LISD Orientation

Today was my district orientation for student teachers. There are officially 87 student teachers in the district  which includes 60 different schools.

I arrived about 10 minutes early and there was about 10-15 people waiting to sign in. We then went back to take pictures for our I.D. cards and find a seat in the presentation room. It was incredible how many people showed up past the start time! What's with people and their inability to make appointments? Apparently I'm one of the few who takes these things seriously. Anyways, we ended up waiting until 9:30 to begin the actual presentation. Apparently the 8:30 start time was so that the people who actually show up on time would show up, get their pictures done and out of the way, while they waited for the late people to show up and do the same. Thank god for smart phones otherwise I'd have to stare into space or listen to other people's conversations to pass time.

The presentation itself was cute and only mildly informative. Basically the big message was not to be a half ass teacher and that the district might hire you. The woman in charge of staffing the secondary teachers informed us that their primary means of hiring teachers is by interviewing student teachers. So basically I'm going to do my best this semester to kick ass at student teaching and hopefully I'll land myself a teaching position. The job openings should be posted sometime in late March or April so I'll be sure to check up on that.

Other than that nothing interesting occurred. We got a free pen, highlighter (which was dried up), and caramel corn. We watched lame videos that offered student teaching tips. It's not that the tips were irrelevant, but is just another reiteration of everything our professors have repeated to us in every education class I took.

I'll update again next week and report if my university's 8 hour orientation and 3 hour seminar is any less boring than the one I attended today. My guess is not so much.