Day Twenty Six: The Presentation

We rocked our presentation!! We even got a thumbs up from the prof.  Awesome!! Of course I feel like I have been run over by a bus, AND I had a coughing fit in the middle of it.  But we pulled it off.  I also discovered this website in ProSem called http://www.wordle.net/ .  You can make 'word clouds'.  We were trying to decide if it was a useful thing to use in class or not.  The opinions were mixed, but we decided that the fewer the words the better, otherwise it was too confusing and not all the words were readable.  Anyway, you should check it out.

Day Twenty Five: Uh Oh!

I have a presentation tomorrow.  I haven't done anything for it yet.  I am working with Derek, and we thought that as moderators we were just to keep everyone on track and make sure we did not run out of time.  Were we wrong!! We have to make a presentation for tomorrow.  It's 4:30 right now and we are going to the Den to drink and see if we can't come up with something.
Ok so I got home at 10:30.  I think we have enough stuff to make a three hour class.  We made a powerpoint presentation and everything.  I hope we do ok.  We made some review questions and a question lottery, where we draw a question and a name, and you have to answer.  We also sumamrized all of our cases, 1-5.  We will see how we do tommorrow. 

Day Twenty Four: I Teach

Ok I got to co-teach.  Of course I forgot half of what I was going to say.  But that's ok, my partner teacher covered for me.  I thought I did ok since I had sick brain and wasn't at my best.  I did a lesson on social studies, about a town called Meteghan.  I had the kids make fishing boats.  They got to use tin foil, plastercine, and straws.  Some of them were pretty neat.  I took some pictures of them, and the kids were pretty proud of them.  I also got to sit in with some groups and talk to them while they were making their boats.  Sitting on the floor in dress pants is hard!! :)  Heard some conversation in the staff room about how much they don't like the Monday after Halloween.  One teacher won't let them bring their candy to school.  I think to myself, have we all forgotten what it was like to be a kid?  Halloween was fun, and so was talking about it with friends at school the next day.  I don't know why they can't embrace it and make time to discuss what everyone did on the weekend.  It would make the day less crazy if you just let them get it out.  The above are pics of their boats.

Day Twenty Three: Picture Day!

We had pictures today!! It brought back all kinds of memories about when I went to school.  They are almost exactly the same except now they use digital cameras instead of film AND you get a choice of background....I think I did too, but not in elementary.  They even did a whole class photo, and I was in it!! And the staff photo too.  I got to stand at the back because apparently I am tall.  Another funny story to tell:  The kids get handed their name pieces and they are organized by background.  The photo lady went through the whole class and then came to the name Aimee.  I thought for a minute.  We don't have  a kid named Aimee in our class.  Maybe she has the wrong class?  But all the other names matched. Who is this Aimee girl and why is she on the list?  Aimee is the teacher.  Duh.  Even she stood there for a minute wondering who this Aimee girl was and who it might be in the class.  Maybe the name was said wrong.  That's what happens when you get called by your last name all day everyday.  You forget you have a first name.

Day Twenty Two: Story Time!

I appologize for the lateness of this post.  Last week I felt like I got run over by a truck, so I only managed one post and that was a day late too.  After this one I should be back on schedule.  Since Thursday last week was not very exciting I will tell you a story.  On Tuesday last week I saw an amazing thing.  I was watching this group of kids near the back of the room.  Suddenly one of them grabs his crotch and starts standing on his toes and putting his arm in the air.  Then he grabs his crotch again and moon walks across the floor.  Remember we are in grade two.  I am thinking to myself....he looks like Michael Jackson....then another kids says 'cool Michael Jackson moves!"  Ahh!! I remember MJ.  Suddenly I feel old.  Suddenly I wonder how a grade two kid knows this about MJ and has seen it enough times to imitate it.  All day he did MJ moves.  I was waiting for Thriller but it never showed.  I half expected the kid to come to school with a red leather jacket and a silvery gloves on, or burned hair....or maybe a white face.  Oh wait.  He was already white. 

Day Twenty-One: Math Rears It's Ugly Head

Today was a standard day.  Not much exciting happened.  We had a lecture on how amazing math can be and I have to admit my brain zoned out.  I have such a hard time grasping math.  I could sit there and nod with a glazed look in my eye and not remember a single thing you told me.  But tell me a history fact or something similar and I will grab onto it and store it in my brain.  I don't know why this is. I tried to stay focused, but as soon as we got to fractions I was done.  I don't know what else to write.  It was really a pretty unamazing day.

Day Twenty: Literacy Day!

Today is Literacy Day!  I got to stay at school until 8pm.  I also got to plan a Social Studies lesson with the help of my partner teacher (PT).  We are doing a lesson on Meteghan in NS.  The kids get to build fishing boats out of tinfoil and skewers and toothpicks.  It also ties in with Boats and Buoyancy in grade 2 Science.  Oh yeah!! Dual purpose lesson! I rock!  I get to teach them on Tuesday next week.  After this I went for supper with my PT and her co-teacher.  I gave them a lesson in Hutterites and about how there are three different kinds in Canada.  They thought it was neat.  We headed back to the school and I got to meet some of the parents and listen to a story tht was read to the kids in the gym.  They all got to wear their PJ's.  After the book there was a presentation for parents about how to make literacy easy.  The ideas included reading a recipe, a grocery list, signs outside, reading to each other.  I even got milk and cookies.  It was good to see my teacher and the kids outside the formal learning environment.  It helps you feel like you are more a part of the community instead of an entity inside a building.  I told my PT that I would be an annoying student teacher by exclaiming this is great!! I LOVE this kind of thing.  Of course we had to have the negative people who were like it was too late  and the story was too long and why did I have to come on my off hours?  Uh...because you are a teacher?  Anyway, I had a blast.

Day Nineteen: The Kids Like Me

So today I got asked if I would be at Literacy Day tomorrow night at the school.  I said yes I would and a couple of the girls got all excited.  That made me feel good.  It reminded me about why I am here.  I was feeling pretty crap today and that made my day much better.  I was having doubts about whether or not I should continue.  I had a dream last night that I told my family I was quitting and then they all said 'good, it's about time you figured out you don't belong there.'  That hurt, because they were all gungho about me going.  They even let me move back home for free.  So anyway, tomorrow is literacy day and I am looking forward to it.  There was a book fair at school as well and I went and looked at all the cool books they have there.  If I was a millionaire I know where all my money would go.. to BOOKS!! I love books.  I love how they smell and the imagination they let you have.  I also love well illustrated books with amazing pictures.  I think that is this year's Christmas list, get me books I can use in my class.

Day Eighteen: Enough Sharing Already!

So today I was talking to my fellow university students and we have all come to the same conclusion.  We are tired of sharing.  We are tired of having opinions.  We wish someone would just tell us what we need to know, and won't someone just talk at us for a while?  Tell us what you expect....give us an EXAM!! I know that I am tired of  being questioned about things I thought I 'knew'.  I DO know somethings and I AM WHO I AM! I have a certain personality and so it will affect my teaching.  I understand that.  But I am not willing to do a complete 360 and become something that I am uncomfortable with or false.  There are things I know for a certainty and that will not change.  Some things I am willing to work on, but do not keep pushing me to 'change' into some airy fairy new age teacher.  I won't and I will resist.  I like collaboration with others, but I will not do it all the time, I need my space.  I will have quiet periods in my class, I have a high sensitivity to constant noise and it overwhelms me.  Constant sound will result in a poor performance from me as a teacher.  I will make learning fun and relevant. I will follow the curriculum.  I won't be stepped on.  I will get along and address concerns, but I will not change my essential core of self.  You can bet on that.

Day Seventeen: Recharge

Today I skipped class (!) and went back to the Hutterite Colony I used to be an assistant at.  I needed some Hutterite Kid Hugs and I needed to ask the teacher there, who has taught for 25 years, to clarify some of the things that are expected of me at university.  I fell a bit better, less lost and more like I know what I am doing.  Mostly I needed a recharge.  I needed to get away from the city and back to rural Alberta.  I needed to see some space and talk to people that say please and thank you and have a nice day.  I got to chat with my old students and see that things there are pretty much the same and we joked about that.  They listen just as well as when I left, they still argue with each other and they still tell me the most outrageous things (like all the men had the shave their beards off.....the little bums!)  They ALMOST had me with that one.  I feel like I have reconnected with the reason I am going to school, for those aha moments, for the smiles and the fun.  I felt at home in that room and I can hardly wait to get back to the small town schools when I am done.  The city is killing me....but I can do it.  I can focus.  I can think of Hutterite Kid Hugs.

Day Sixteen: A Rescue!

Today I watched three Chilean miners get rescued.  It took people from all over the world to come together to rescue people they had not met.  Someone said 'I can do that.  I can help someone.'  And so they did.  Not for profit, not for stardom, but for simple humanity.  Sometimes the greatest reward is the deed itself.

Day Fifteen: The Power to Offend

Offend:  to cause difficulty, discomfort, or injury.

So says Merriam-Webster.  Our society is obsessed with not offending.  I don't want to stir the pot, or offend someone.  Well let me say something about how I feel about this.  Have you ever been offended by something enough to say 'That is outrageous! Something needs to be done!'  Has is made you feel uncomfortable?  THEN DO SOMETHING!! How would society change if no one was offended?  If everything was tickety-boo how would we advance as a compassionate society.  If something offends your sense of dignity then you need to do something.  Don't rely on others to fix the problem.  As Ghandi said 'Be the change you wish to see in the world.'  Get offended and then get active.  Get offended at how your students are being stymied in their quest for knowledge and then do something.  Would you confront a parent that wants to pull their child from school because 'I made it without education?'  Apparently not many in my class would.  Only two of us..myself and someone else.  How sad is that?  One girl would...'to a point.  I would send an email and set up an interview at school.'  Do you think a disinterested parent is going to take the time to read an email from the teacher or to drive all the way to the school?  Doubtful.  What if you are in a remote community that doesn't have reliable email?  GASP!? No email?  What fresh vision of hell is THIS!?  You need to get in their face, you need to become an advocate and a champion for the lives in your care.  Stir the pot. And watch the world change.  I leave you with this:

Another cause of dullness is imitation.  You are made to imitate by tradition.  The weight of the past drives you to conform, toe the line and through conformity the mind feels safe, secure, it establishes itself in a well oiled groove so that it can run smoothly without disturbance, without a quiver of doubt.  Watch the grown up people about you and you will see that their minds do not want to be disturbed.  They want peace, even though it is the peace of death; but real peace is something entirely different.
                                                                                                                J. Krishnamurti

Day Fourteen: Treats are the Devil

So I am going to get this off my chest right away.  It was a student's birthday today in class.  Her mom sent treats for the kids.  The kids could not eat them in class because the school is a place of learning and we don't have time for treats.  Besides treats are bad for you and we need to eat good fuel to fuel our brains.  WHAT!?  What happened to being a kid?  What happened to having fun in GRADE 2?  So now it's all carrots and healthy food and brainwashing such as what could we eat instead of these treats?  (I am thinking more treats....but I am not educated.)  The student was upset at the end of the day that the treats got sent home.  So it's more important to not have fun and let the little dudes be upset than to eat a couple cookies?  Really?  Sometimes I think this nutrion break garbage gets taken too far.  That's what morning snack is called. Nutrition Break.  AND they have to work and eat at the same time.  No breaks for you, you little automatons.  Churn out that work, be like your neighbour, suck the fun out of school and ask why Alberta has a high drop out rate.  Yeah.  It starts early.

Day Thirteen: Watch Out for Erasers

So I had an eraser chucked at me today.  I was facing away from one of the students, with my back to him and I felt this tap on the back of my sweater.  I looked down and at my feet was one of those little eraser nubs from a pencil.  I turned around and said 'Are you throwing things?  Are you throwing things at me?'  He said 'I threw the eraser but did not mean to hit you.'  Then he buddy beside him said 'You threw it right at her!'  I fixed the perp. with an eveil glare hoping to scare him (actually really I was trying to think of something to say).  Since I did not actually see him huck an eraser at me I just said 'Do you think that throwing things in class is a good choice?'  He mumbled 'No.'  So I handled that ok I think.  Most of the rest of the day was the same.  They have this thing called DPA (daily physical activity) which replaces afternoon recess.  It's instructional time instead of free play and it allows the kids to go home early.  They don't have morning recess either.  They have almost an hour for lunch though.  I am not sure what I think of this system.  I think kids need to get out and run the crazies out otherwise they get unruly.  I don't like the idea of every minute of every day being totally structured like this.  It doesn't allow kids to be kids at all.

Day Twelve: I Am So Behind

I am now three days behind on the blog.  This is awesome.  Suddenly I am inundated with stuff.  The overwhelmed feeling is coming back again.  I seem to have a hard time reconciling my school days with my university days.  It feels like I am living two different lives.  Anyhow, on to what happened on Thursday.  Thursday I did a group presentation on Diversity in the Classroom.  We focused on how people get labelled and how those labels can be either good or bad.  Our project got a really good comment from the prof.  One of the other Ed. students said we 'set the bar.'  Haha.  Now everyone has to be as good or better than us.  We rocked that presentation.  That was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened that day.  I hung out with the group after and we decided that we did not want to switch groups, we all get along so well and we have such diverse backgrounds that we really work well together.  I really like them.