Rock Star Teacher

Alison is working on her Masters in Curriculum and Instruction through Michigan State, and some of her assignments require her to complete projects in class.  Since she's not actually teaching at the moment, she used my class as her "lab" for her research project.  And because our classes our short, I told the students before hand that she was coming, that I expected their best behavior, etc. to cut down on the confusion and chaos and have more time for instruction.

I was surprised at how excited they were! Part of it is probably because I always use Alison and Eva as examples in class, so they hear about them a lot.  Alison was actually supposed to come a couple weeks ago, but because of the unrest, we had to reschedule a couple of times.  They were always disappointed.  

I had this conversation a couple of times with students:

Student:  Is Eva coming?
Me:  No.  Everyone would be too distracted.
Student:  Are you staying at home with her?
Me:  No, I'll be here at school.
Student: So where will Eva be?
Me.  Well... at home.
Student:  Alone!?!?!
Me.  Yeah.  If Mrs. Alison and I are both here, who else would be with her?
Student:  

Sometimes I came clean and sometimes I didn't. 

So today was the big day.  Alison didn't come to school right away, so when one girl came to my class before school even started, she panicked and asked, "Where is Ms. Alison!?!" I had to reassure her that she was coming a little later, but would be here for her math period.  She signed a sigh of relief.

Alison came, taught, and left.  The kids enjoyed it, or at least they pretended to for our sakes.  Alison also got to connect with the people she knows from working at Al Raja previously. Even some former students came to say hi.  Tomorrow the kids will have a test, and then it's back to the grind with their normal, boring teacher.  Well, as I tell my students, "whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger".