We had time off...Monday for President's Day, Tuesday early release because of impending weather, and Wednesday for bad weather. and today two-hour delay to start, so a short day, though it felt like a long day. I finally emailed someone at HR to ask about thee two mystery deductions on my paycheck that I noticed a couple months ago. They equal a few hundred dollars so I probably should find out what they are for. (edit: turns out they are for taxes.) I need to go back to doing exercise, I am feeling lethargic and emotionally low. To be a good teacher, or a good teaching assistant (my job), you need to have interesting material and to be able to present it in engaging and energetic ways. When a student is tired and the subject doesn't interest them it's the instructor's job to try and make it interesting, or people will tune out and fall asleep...which happens a lot in a couple of our classes, and with a couple of students in particular. I think we should at least play a board game if there's no lesson plan to do, instead of letting kids zone out into their phones, then they could have the experience of engaging with a group and practice some strategy, creative thinking, and counting/reading, etc.
In computer animation today we were supposed to finish our Greek building or castle, and follow along as the teacher built a basic tree form. I had to restart mine four times; I kept messing up but wasn't sure how to fix it or what I did. The teacher was going really slowly at first and then too fast to keep up with. I also am not sure if I know how to save my work properly, but I'm more concerned that the student I am there with saves his...It's awkward to try to listen to the teacher and then try to convey that to the student (saying it out loud and pointing to where he needs to put his curser/click or dbl.click, or click and hold) while the teacher is already moved on to the next part, and I just wanted to holler: slow down please! Back up please! Show that part again! Which he really should have done bc I walked around the class and very few people were at the point where he was...He says he was recording it for a tutorial that he would post, so hopefully, I can watch that and it will help. I mean, ideally I would know the material and then I could just teach it to the student, but I am learning it at the same time. I just need to put more effort into practicing, even if it's frustrating to work on by myself.
Because of the snow day, we missed clay class so I need to remember to bring my little pyramids in tomorrow so that they can be fired. I'm hoping to put some effort into glazing them and that they will be something I can be proud of instead of some of the things I made in my own ceramics class years ago that I didn't really work too hard on, despite enjoying working with clay and sculpting. The student in that class is pretty disassociated with the projects so far, so I made 90% of his first thing and it came out well I think. I am hoping that he will enjoy the glazing/painting process and will be willing to do that part by himself. I'm glad I get the opportunity to make things as well (the teacher said I could try the wheel too, which I am excited about, even though I remember it as being challenging and difficult (frustrating) experience in the past. We will see, we will see. Stay safe. Peace.
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