Yesterday I got the most lovely email from a parent whose son I teach in my Maths class. I had called her concerned about her son's attitude towards Maths, not because he was exhibiting any negative behaviours, but because he had seemed to have lost his love and enthusiasm for Maths, in such a quick period of time.
We met that afternoon in my classroom for an informal meeting, and it turned out he was just having a few "off" days because his friend was not at school. I had such a nice conversation with both the boy and his mother, who was so affirming and encouraging. His mum said such nice things about my teaching style and how I was her son's favourite teacher, and then followed up with an email the next day discussing the conversation she had with her son after they came to see me.
She ended the email with "So, once again, I would like to thank you very much for all the wonderful work you have done and also for your time, enthusiasm, patience and outstanding professionalism as a teacher, towards our son. I hope that you are here at this school for many more years to come, because the students here are very lucky to have such an amazing & caring person guiding them through their school years."
But that wasn't my favourite part- even though it was very sweet.
This was the kicker:
"I would like to share with you these appropriate quotes:
· The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William A. Ward (her emphasis)
· The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. ~ Anonymous "
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
What I've Been Up To
It's been a LONG time since I've updated this little blog... it's been a little neglected because life has gotten in the way!
So... what's been taking up all my time?
Thirty one children, seven hours a day, five days a week
:)
Teaching has become my number one time consumer. I go to sleep thinking about lesson plans and wake up thinking about seating charts... not to mention reports, assessments, calling parents, assemblies, competitions, school dances, awards, notes home, projects, extension groups, photocopying, grades, discipline.
To give you an idea of how full on this whole teaching thing is, let me paint you a picture of what's been happening in our school community lately.
#1 : Reports had to be finished and proof read this week. This means constant checking of grades, comments, and general ticking-of-boxes, with lots of last minute changes that add to the already immensely high stress levels. Let's just say that I now have a renewed appreciation for all of my teachers who spent hours working on MY school reports! I had no idea about the amount of work that goes into them. Every i must be dotted and every t crossed. And every comma must be in the right place! Teachers are grammar and punctuation aficionados!
On top of reports being due, we have also had to find time for:
yearly exams (and the tonne of marking, grading and ranking that comes with them!)
the handball competition
the school disco
award ceremonies
You can see why I've been a little distracted! Lots has been going on... and in the middle of it, I'm trying to secure myself a job for next year, seeing as I'm only filling in for a teacher who's been on maternity leave. Trying to find the time to start filling out job applications whilst in the midst of the craziness of what is Term 4 is a little difficult!
Not knowing if I'll even be employed next year is even scarier!
I had this whole plan about how my teaching career would start, and this has not exactly been how I thought it would go... But, it has been great experience and a HUGE learning curve.
I have learnt to be tough, and stick to my guns. I've learnt how to (almost) control a classroom of thirty-one rambunctious ten year olds. I've learnt how to be caring and strict at the same time.
It's been one huge rollercoaster ride... a baptism of fire, if you will.
Not what I expected, or how I imagined my first year of teaching to be. Not better or worse than what I thought, just... different.
There have been awesome days and there have been days that really sucked.
There have been moments I've laughed and moments I've cried.
Days I've smiled and days I've yelled.
Days that I've been on Cloud 9 and days that I've gotten more angry than I ever have before.
Days where I have taken the frustration home with me.
Days where I've been disappointed, and anxious, and sad, and joyful, and ecstatic all within the same seven-hour period.
Days where I've felt uplifted and days where I've felt downtrodden.
I'm told this is life in the adult world. After so many years of being a student and feeling like a kid despite being twenty-something, it's strange. And I think it'll take some getting used to.
So... what's been taking up all my time?
Thirty one children, seven hours a day, five days a week
:)
Teaching has become my number one time consumer. I go to sleep thinking about lesson plans and wake up thinking about seating charts... not to mention reports, assessments, calling parents, assemblies, competitions, school dances, awards, notes home, projects, extension groups, photocopying, grades, discipline.
To give you an idea of how full on this whole teaching thing is, let me paint you a picture of what's been happening in our school community lately.
#1 : Reports had to be finished and proof read this week. This means constant checking of grades, comments, and general ticking-of-boxes, with lots of last minute changes that add to the already immensely high stress levels. Let's just say that I now have a renewed appreciation for all of my teachers who spent hours working on MY school reports! I had no idea about the amount of work that goes into them. Every i must be dotted and every t crossed. And every comma must be in the right place! Teachers are grammar and punctuation aficionados!
On top of reports being due, we have also had to find time for:
yearly exams (and the tonne of marking, grading and ranking that comes with them!)
the handball competition
the school disco
award ceremonies
You can see why I've been a little distracted! Lots has been going on... and in the middle of it, I'm trying to secure myself a job for next year, seeing as I'm only filling in for a teacher who's been on maternity leave. Trying to find the time to start filling out job applications whilst in the midst of the craziness of what is Term 4 is a little difficult!
Not knowing if I'll even be employed next year is even scarier!
I had this whole plan about how my teaching career would start, and this has not exactly been how I thought it would go... But, it has been great experience and a HUGE learning curve.
I have learnt to be tough, and stick to my guns. I've learnt how to (almost) control a classroom of thirty-one rambunctious ten year olds. I've learnt how to be caring and strict at the same time.
It's been one huge rollercoaster ride... a baptism of fire, if you will.
Not what I expected, or how I imagined my first year of teaching to be. Not better or worse than what I thought, just... different.
There have been awesome days and there have been days that really sucked.
There have been moments I've laughed and moments I've cried.
Days I've smiled and days I've yelled.
Days that I've been on Cloud 9 and days that I've gotten more angry than I ever have before.
Days where I have taken the frustration home with me.
Days where I've been disappointed, and anxious, and sad, and joyful, and ecstatic all within the same seven-hour period.
Days where I've felt uplifted and days where I've felt downtrodden.
I'm told this is life in the adult world. After so many years of being a student and feeling like a kid despite being twenty-something, it's strange. And I think it'll take some getting used to.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A Week on Prac
This past week I've been on prac at a local school every day!
It's my last prac before officially becoming a proper teacher in June, so I'm soaking up every minute of it (hence the lack of attention paid to this blog recently!)
I have a Kindergarten class, and they are so fun to plan lessons for... although catering to the needs of 22 different children who have only just come out of pre-school six weeks ago has it's challenges.
For one of our assignments, we had to create a lesson that qualified as a multi-engaging experience- meaning that it held the kids' interest and addressed outcomes from multiple subject areas.
I chose to plan a Maths lesson with Science and Creative Arts elements as well. After observing the class on Monday and Tuesday, I felt I was ready to start teaching on Wednesday (actually, I was itching to get started by then!)
The first part of the lesson was yesterday morning. I chose something fun and exciting for the kids to learn with- Jellybeans!
First we traced around our hands, and then we covered the surface area with jellybeans!
Then we traced around the jellybeans
and coloured them in so we could see how many jellybeans fit inside each hand print!
We then sorted the jellybeans into colours and made a bar graph depicting the number of each different colour jellybean!
Then we ranked each colour jellybean from least to most, on a scale using rope and paperclips!
It was so fun, and the kids were really engaged! Success!
It's my last prac before officially becoming a proper teacher in June, so I'm soaking up every minute of it (hence the lack of attention paid to this blog recently!)
I have a Kindergarten class, and they are so fun to plan lessons for... although catering to the needs of 22 different children who have only just come out of pre-school six weeks ago has it's challenges.
For one of our assignments, we had to create a lesson that qualified as a multi-engaging experience- meaning that it held the kids' interest and addressed outcomes from multiple subject areas.
I chose to plan a Maths lesson with Science and Creative Arts elements as well. After observing the class on Monday and Tuesday, I felt I was ready to start teaching on Wednesday (actually, I was itching to get started by then!)
The first part of the lesson was yesterday morning. I chose something fun and exciting for the kids to learn with- Jellybeans!
First we traced around our hands, and then we covered the surface area with jellybeans!
Then we traced around the jellybeans
and coloured them in so we could see how many jellybeans fit inside each hand print!
We then sorted the jellybeans into colours and made a bar graph depicting the number of each different colour jellybean!
Then we ranked each colour jellybean from least to most, on a scale using rope and paperclips!
It was so fun, and the kids were really engaged! Success!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Why Do We Need School
Saw this on Facebook- you have to laugh at it, even if the whole thing might be enough to do me out of a job when I finally become a proper teacher!
Why Do We Need School
Music: We have YouTube for that.
Sport: I have a Wii.
Languages: I watch Dora the Explorer.
English: Everything is shortened anyway (LOL, BRB).
Maths: That's why we have calculators.
Geography: I'll buy a globe (or use NavMan).
Drama: That's why I watch The Bold & The Beautiful.
History: They're all dead anyway!
Luckily I have a kindergarten class for my latest prac at school, and being so early in the year, they can't read yet... otherwise if they saw this, they might not turn up next week ;)
Why Do We Need School
Music: We have YouTube for that.
Sport: I have a Wii.
Languages: I watch Dora the Explorer.
English: Everything is shortened anyway (LOL, BRB).
Maths: That's why we have calculators.
Geography: I'll buy a globe (or use NavMan).
Drama: That's why I watch The Bold & The Beautiful.
History: They're all dead anyway!
Luckily I have a kindergarten class for my latest prac at school, and being so early in the year, they can't read yet... otherwise if they saw this, they might not turn up next week ;)
Friday, August 13, 2010
Back to School
Was it really in July that I last posted? Wow. I'm such a bad blogger. I hadn't even noticed that it had been that long! I've been so flat out with uni work that everything else got put on the backburner I guess.
So... what have I been up to? I have classes pretty much all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Thursdays are the best days, because:
a) it's the shortest day at uni for me (only 2 classes, 1.5 hours each)
and
b) I have my Science & Technology class, where we get to play with materials and make cool stuff!
It's just like being a kid at school again, except we don't get bossed around by a teacher, and we have little instructions so we get to figure it out for ourselves. Things to remember for when I am the teacher, right?!
Here's a photo of me from class yesterday, where we made traffic lights out of polysterene cups, wood, hot glue, masking tape, aluminium foil, coloured cellophane, a 9V battery, 6 wires and a light bulb! So much fun- and we're adults! Can you imagine how much fun kids would have doing this stuff?
So... what have I been up to? I have classes pretty much all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Thursdays are the best days, because:
a) it's the shortest day at uni for me (only 2 classes, 1.5 hours each)
and
b) I have my Science & Technology class, where we get to play with materials and make cool stuff!
It's just like being a kid at school again, except we don't get bossed around by a teacher, and we have little instructions so we get to figure it out for ourselves. Things to remember for when I am the teacher, right?!
Here's a photo of me from class yesterday, where we made traffic lights out of polysterene cups, wood, hot glue, masking tape, aluminium foil, coloured cellophane, a 9V battery, 6 wires and a light bulb! So much fun- and we're adults! Can you imagine how much fun kids would have doing this stuff?
Showing off our technical prowess:
We even made our own "switch" out of a small piece of wood, thumbtacks and a paperclip, so you can choose whether to have the red, orange or green light on.
See! It really does light up!
We are learning lots of cool stuff in this class- last week we made cars out of milk or juice cartons, then we put them on a ramp and had a race! Unfortunately my car's back axle was a bit skew-iff and the car veered to the right a lot... needless to say, it didn't win.
Our teacher recorded it all on his mini flip camera and then played it on the data projector through his laptop for us all to see! We also made graphs on the laptop, interactive whiteboard and regular whiteboard- can you imagine how much fun kids would have with that? Not to mention all the learning involved- lots of maths in particular (measurement, speed, physics and gravity, just from racing the cars themselves!)
I can't wait until we get to go on prac (next Monday!!!) and get to bring all these ideas we've learnt and put them into practice in a real classroom.
Have I mentioned where I'm going on prac? My old primary school! How funny is that?! It will be weird to be back there after about 10 years- and even weirder to be there as a teacher! I'll get to go in the staffroom! That was definitely a no-no when I was a student there. It'll be like getting a backstage pass! Behind the scenes at CMPS!
Just for fun, here's me back in 1998 and 1999, in the school uniform! I'm thinking I'll take these photos in to class on Monday, just in case the students don't believe me when I tell them I went there too!
Look at that badge on my collar- that was for School Representative Council, I think.
I wish my hair still looked like that- beautiful and straight, and look at my natural colour! I will spend the rest of my life trying to get a hairdresser who can attempt to dye it back to that blondey-brown colour.
And this blue badge on the photo down the bottom here? That was for Library Monitor. Don't laugh- it was cool back then! Everyone wanted to be a Library Monitor. It basically meant that you got to pretend to be in charge of all the kids who were in the library at lunchtime.
I remember this photo day- I was growing my fringe out, and had my mum put one roller in the front just so it wouldn't hang in my eyes and look horrible by the time it came to get photos taken (because we were in the older grades, we were always the last to get our photos taken, right at the end of the day after lunch when you were all sweaty from playing at lunchtime).
I still looked cute though. If only it was that easy now. You just wait til Monday- I'll be up at the crack of dawn, blowdrying my hair, putting makeup on, deliberating over outfit choices! Kids don't know how easy they have it!
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