After many many moons...another entry!

thewalkingdeadpodcast.com

I'm still alive.

Which is not supposed to be a joke, there were many times during my first year of teaching that I felt like I was a zombie just going through the motions, and I hated it because I was so excited to start teaching at the beginning of the year.

I started off September 2012 very apprehensive. I was going into my first year of teaching, teaching something that I had no experience or interest in teaching. It was a grade 6/7 split. After all my practicums where I prepared lesson plans and units for ELA and Social Studies in the high school area, I had to learn how to plan an entire curriculum for a grade I never taught before and with students in an age-range that I had never taught.

It was scary. I almost wanted to call my employers and tell them that I wanted to break my contract. But then, I remembered the wise, wise words of Mr. Tom Skinner. He said that sometimes you had to teach something you didn't want to, especially in the first year (I'm paraphrasing, I can't remember his exact words). So I stuck my feet in the ground, pushed my head down and forged on-ward.

It was awful. I won't lie. I would come home at the end of the day (after staying at work until after six pm) utterly exhausted. Then I would spend another three hours doing research on the internet. I didn't have weekends because I was always looking for other ways to teach what I wanted them to learn. I ran out of time. I didn't get to teach everything that I was supposed to. I think I cried at the end of almost everyday the first month. But lo and behold...I was becoming a teacher. I was spending money out of my own pocket to provide incentives and buy resources for my classroom. I was getting good at finding free things online. I learned how to use the laminator. The photocopier and I became intimate friends. But most importantly, my students were becoming MY students. They weren't perfect, sometimes they would break into my classroom during lunch hour because they had no where else to go, and they would hide my sub plans when I was unable to go to work. And during our Christmas party, they threw chocolate cake all over the room. But they always cleaned up whatever mess they made and told me they were sorry.

This is only half of my 6/7's. A bunch of them were absent for picture day.

Slowly, I was beginning to like teaching them. They were smart and funny and artistic. Even the sullen bully would stay after school for a few minutes to shoot the breeze. When Admin. came around asking me for the name of a student I thought would enjoy going to a conference in the city, I named one of the students who (for most of the year) was not what you would call a "model-student". I wanted him to go because the change in his work habits and attitude had improved so much. I wanted him to go because he was a natural leader. And he went. Some parents had some not-so-nice things to say to me about my choice, but I stuck to it. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would pick him again.

As much as I had began to enjoy my students, at the end of the year, when the renewing of contracts came about, I made the hard decision to leave the middle years and requested the position that I had coveted all along.

High School English Language Arts.

And I got it.

But that is another story for another day. Hopefully soon!

I just wanted you all to know that I am alive :)

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Sylvia.

First day of Student Teaching!

(This post was written on March 12, 2012. I just forgot to come and post it into Blogger when I was done)

My oh my, you know that you're enjoying what you're doing when the day flies by.

Oh, and I was so excited last night that I couldn't sleep. I was still up at 3:30 trying to fall asleep, which, lets face it, is just a futile attempt because you know you're not going to fall asleep if you're trying to fall asleep.

So, even though I was going by on only three hours of sleep, I did not feel tired at all today.

The school I am in this placement is also the school where I did my first placement. I think it bookends quite nicely. I already know most of the staff, and only the grade nines are new students to me.

So since Sioux Valley has acquired the building for thier high school, there have been many changes since my first placement. Most of the walls have been painted, giving the rooms a nice, bright feel. The student lounge has a fooseball table and a flat-screen tv with cable. Most of the classrooms have been outfitted with SmartBoards or are in the process of having them installed. There is an actual wall dividing the two computer labs instead of a wall of bookcases.

It's a very exciting time at SVHS.

During my last slot, a tenth grader swallowed a quarter. Not on purpose. He claims he was going to stick it under his tongue and pretend that he swallowed it. My CT says that he had a very surprised look on his face when he said "Oh! It's gone!". This was 10 minutes before the bell rang and he did not want to go to a doctor.

I am just so glad that he didn't swallow the quarter while I was in that class. I was safetly tucked away in the Native Studies classroom :)

Until next blog...Sylvia bids thee fairwell :)

P.S.

An update on the quarter situation. The boys mother took him to the emergency room, where the doctor had to put him under general anesthesia and insert a tube into his stomach to get the offending quarter out.

Final summative video

Here is my summative video for Internet for Educators. I will admit that I am a little embarrassed to share it because it reveals how truly nerdy I am, but if you have ever watched "The Big Bang Theory" then you will know that nerds are awesome. I can only wish to be as nerdy as they are. There comes a point where you are so nerdy that you become cool. I'm afraid that I have not yet reached that point. 

Anyway, I didn't watch any of the other videos that my classmates and colleagues have posted before me, just so it wouldn't influence how I did mine. I really did learn a lot in this course and combined with the ICT course last year, I feel that I am a lot more comfortable with technology than I was when I first started in the Bachelor of Education program. 

I wish all my colleagues a wonderful placement, and if you've already completed your final placement (like Katrina) then I wish you a good rest.

Good luck and thanks to you all! A special thank you to Mr. N for teaching such a good course.

George Couros

George gave a presentation via Skype in our class last week, and I really enjoyed it. It was a little scary though. I did agree with most of his points regarding FB. Especially the one about friending your students. I would never friend a student. Even though I don’t have any risque pictures on my Facebook, I am known to share inappropriate pictures or comments that make me laugh.

However, one of the biggest concerns I had was regarding friending parents. I come from a small community, and have my closest and high-school friends on Facebook. Because I will be going back, I know that I will be teaching some of my friends’ students. It doesn’t really make sense to me to delete my friends. And when Couros made his point about it not being fair to other parents, I’m sure that if I sent a message back explaining the reason for my declining their add request, they would understand me and my reasons. An important point that I was thinking about during the Edmodo VS. Facebook presentation is that I would get an Edmodo to contact and stay in touch with parents. I would never discuss anything from my professional life on facebook, even if it’s just to let a friend know that there isn’t any school the next day. I am going to take great pains to keep my personal and professional life separate.

I did agree with Couros when he said that the relationships we make with kids are the most important relationships. This is something that I’ve had to work on because I used to feel intimidated by my students. However, my last placement couldn’t have come at a better time. I was teaching in an SDL classroom where I worked one-on-one with students. I was able to work on my student-teacher relationship skills and wow-ed my CT. She told me that in all the years that she had a student teacher, I was the first one who didn’t have any conflicts with any of the students. I can’t wait to start practicum next week and practise my new skills :)

WE TEACH KIDS FIRST AND CURRICULUM SECOND.

This particular quote has a personal meaning to me. Right now, my six-year-old is attending New Era school. When I say attending, what I really mean is sporadically attending. He is having behavioural issues and I am so thankful for the supportive staff and administration at the school. I came from a meeting there today and we discussed graduated reintegration for my baby (second time this year). He’s falling behind in reading and Math, but the principal said to me that they weren’t too concerned about his falling behind. They wanted to concentrate on helping my baby be able to stay in school without having an episode. This is what teaching kids first and curriculum second means to me. And I am so thankful for this.

Anyway. I think I shall leave my wordy blog-post now. I really enjoyed this skype presentation with George Couros.

Although, I will admit that I could not stop thinking about Ross Geller (from Friends) throughout the presentation.

Adios for now!

Blackboard

Okay, so I wasn’t aware that we were supposed to actually sign up for some of the online courses on the Blackboard website until a couple of days ago. Haha. Which explains why I am just posting it now. I had to sign up and wait for the courses to be approved.

So I checked out ELA 10F, ELA 30S Literary Focus, and World Issues 40S. It’s actually very organized and I love it. These modules are very similar to the modules that we used in high school back at my school. I remember breezing through the ELA modules, and kind of stalling on the math modules. I loved being able to go at my own pace. However, I don’t really agree with the fact that doing online courses ONLY is the best way to go. It’s kind of like Sandra Bullock’s sad lonely character in “The Net”. She thought that she was content and had everything, but it was so easy for her to lose her identity because she interacted with people only ever on the internet, and through phone calls.

However, I could see how this would be beneficial to students who can’t regularly come to school. I had some students in my last-placement switch over to the CCPE, which stands for Crocus Continuing Education Program because they had jobs or babies to tend to. I can see how these online courses would be beneficial to students who are in schools or communities that have no Adult Education or Continuing Education programming.

Pros and Cons?

Indeed. But I still believe that a mixture of both online and face-to-face interaction would be most beneficial.

Testing. A blog post from my phone...oooooooh!!!

Remind me again to never procrastinate.

The connected....student?

Okay, so I took a page out of Tammi's book and got my son to do a web for me. He was really into it at first, until I mentioned that he had to at least mention the educational part of it. As you can see, he barely touched on that part.

I thought it was really interesting to see how my 12-year-old sees his world and his network around him. It's so cute! He would probably kill me for saying that but I think all the things my boys do are cute.

I like how he added that math thing. Probably to get back at me for making him do something about education.

Alrighty then!