Starting Supply Teaching 101

I am officially finished my B.Ed. Degree :) It was a long time coming but right now I'm thrilled that I am temporarily done school. I would like to go back to university in half a dozen years to get my Masters in French Literature, but right now I can focus on work, and family and my social life.

While I knew having a French degree would be a major advantage, and I can't believe how many opportunities are out there for French teachers (especially in this area). I've already had the opportunity to supply teach a couple of French Immersion classes (Grade 1 and Grade 6/7 respectively), and I have a new found respect for occasional teachers. I was encouraged multiple times to have a "supply kit" ready, filled with games and ideas to take to the classroom when you are called in to supply. I didn't really have that option. I graduated on Friday, and my first supply gig was four days later.

Supply teaching is incredibly stressful and chaotic. You get a call from the secretary of the school in need, possibly less than 30 minutes before you to start, so you grab your stuff, hope you've gotten up early enough to have showered, eaten breakfast and brushed your teeth. You have little or no time to pack a lunch. Once you get to the school, you introduce yourself to the principal and try to remember the first name of the teacher that you are replacing.

Once have finally found the classroom in the maze of a school, you frantically scour the binders and notes the homeroom teacher has left for you, from the day plans to the seating plan of the classroom. You hope and pray that they have left detailed enough plans that a monkey could follow them (and so far this has been the case). It is an assault on the brain all this new information that you need to read and try to absorb, from the typical morning routine, to learning all the students names as quickly as you can. You run to the photocopy room, printing all the handouts/ worksheets you'll need for the day, praying that technology will actually work in your favour and that you'll complete all your prep work before the morning bell rings.

The kids file in, and the whispers of "it's a supply teacher" and "where's Mrs./ Mr. ___________?" fill the room. You greet the kids as you walk in and observe the funny looks they are giving you. Students are very aware of the typical classroom routine and won't hesitate to tell you the order that things should be done in. You constantly refer to the day plans, because you forget what time each block is ending, and making sure you covered the material required. Other teachers pop their heads in and offer their assistance should you need it and are very friendly in the staff room. I didn't realize that if a supply teacher cannot come in, classrooms will have to be merged together; so instead of having two 25 student classes, one teacher could get stuck with 50 students of possibly different grades.

You run around panicked most of the day but manage to adhere to the vast majority of the teacher's lesson plans, usually understanding the material you are teaching, and the kids are becoming more accustomed to you. Classroom management is a whole other ball game; depends on the classroom dynamics of course, but some classes are far more challenging than others. You help the kids out to recess and when the final bell rings, out to their buses as you feel a trickle of sweat trace its way down your back. One day down, X more to go...

Then the process repeats itself, with each classroom being its own unique entity. Perhaps with time it will get easier. Supply teaching in my view, is like a rite of passage. Teachers start their careers supply teaching, then are able to build rapport with multiple principals and through other interviews acquire LTO jobs (long term occasional in teacher-speak). From there you build entitlement and may end up eventually as a permanent teacher, with your own classroom and group of students. I am very fortunate to have started this process already, having graduated merely two weeks ago. Who knows what September 2013, the beginning of the next school year will bring?

Teaching 101

October, 12/ 2012

 So I've survived my first four days of placement, and I've really enjoyed it. The staff were incredibly warm and welcoming, my associate teacher included and I feel very much at home.

I have learned a lot in just the last few days, and still have piles more to absorb. I haven't really worked with children this young before, so it's been an enlightening, if not challenging experience so far.

 Being in a kindergarten class poses its own set of challenges; not so much the material being taught, but things such as having to break lessons up into smaller pieces because they can't sit still for an extended period, and all the physical things they need assistance with (i.e.: opening their snacks, zipping up their coats, etc). Another added challenge is having to learn twice as many names as any other class, because kindergarten students are only in school every other day, and alternating Fridays.

My associate teacher is well versed in this age group and is a wonderful teacher. I've started making notes of all the great ideas she has, in the hopes of incorporating them into my own teaching/ classroom management style. We planned the entire second weeks lesson plans together, and I will be teaching science, math and art which I'm looking forward to. We went on a field trip to the apple orchard and corn maze all the way in Picton for the afternoon on Thursday.

I've gotten to experience the entire day's routine, from coming in during the morning and hanging up backpacks and having a snack, to at the end of the day when we walk all the kids to the buses.

October 19th/2012

It's been a very busy week in the kindergarten classroom so the days have flown by. I got the opportunity to teach art (tissue paper apples that I put up on our new bulletin board outside the classroom), science (nature themed doing leaf rubbings with crayons) and math (measuring objects in the classroom with a balance scale) this week; all pretty basic lessons but challenging to a certain extent to organize. I have discovered that group management is essential in a classroom of young children because they haven't really learned to self-regulate yet. They tend to be impulsive and need constant reminders to stay on task, to remember to change their shoes, etc. The majority of the kids have finally learned my name and approach me frequently with questions and concerns.

  

While I enjoy working with the kids in the classroom, I think I have realized that I don't think I want to teach kindergarten. While I know this level of education is essential, I just don't think I'm cut out for it. There is minimal time to have breaks, I have been spending a huge amount of time stapling papers, making photocopies, assembling personalized key rings with letter sounds and/or sight words for each child, etc over the last week. This isn't a complaint per say because I love being busy but I feel that the amount of preparing required for a kindergarten class is higher than average. The level of the material being taught is not really as difficult like I would like it to be, and I get slightly frustrated when some of the kids are unable to identify the letters of the alphabet that are in their own name. I also think to a certain extent that so much more has to be prepared and planned when you are a teacher in a classroom of young children because they are unable to do a lot of things themselves.

My associate teacher has been putting me to good use over the course of this week, running errands for her because she is unable to leave the classroom. I really have no idea how she does it and she really goes above and beyond what is expected I believe as a teacher. She is very much a hands-on kind of person and exposes the kids to a variety of new experiences within the classroom. We made apple crisp this week for both the A and B day classes, getting the opportunity to use an old-fashioned apple peeler and slicer, measuring the ingredients, and finally at the end of the day, being able to sample what they had created. I don't ever recall doing that when I was that age.

October, 26/2012

                Wow, it's my last full day for the first block of practicum already! It's been almost a month but its flown by. I think I have come to the realization that I'm very much looking forward to the new year when I will be placed in one of the Junior grades (4-6). Not that I dislike kindergarten by any stretch of the imagination, it's just not an age group I have a lot of experience working with or that I think have the patience for long-term. They are cute as buttons and for the most part quite wonderful to work with. It is rather obvious though which ones are going to be the ones with social and academic issues in future grades. It's also unfortunate to see which ones are likely not getting any academic support at home. 

Before my little brother, sister and I went into kindergarten, mom made sure all of us could read. That being said, she was a stay-at-home mom and she had one-on-one time with us which was critical (more so in the case of my brother who had a hard time focussing in a classroom with other kids). This one-on-one time spent with each student is pretty much non-existent in a kindergarten classroom, when you are being pulled in 18 or more directions at once. There isn't really the opportunity to sit down with one child and work on their sounds/letters in their name until they understand. I can't remember how well I could write in kindergarten, but I know that I could identify letters and what sounds they made. It's very frustrating to me that there are several children in the class that are unable to even identify the letters in their own names. Admittedly I acknowledge the learning curve between the ages of 4 & 5 is massive, so even though some of the JK's may not be able to spell or read their names now, they possibly could at the end of this year. Teaching children is a long and slow process for sure.

I had the opportunity to teach a guided reading lesson on a Clifford the Big Red Dog book, work with small guided groups on word awareness activities, help paint, dress and build wooden scarecrows, as well as cut out hundreds of assorted fabric squares for our math unit on patterning and building quilts. While I love the child-oriented material being taught, I feel to a certain extent that I'm "dumbing myself down" with what I'm teaching. Obviously you talk to a 4 year old very differently than you would a 9 year old. Most of the experience I have working with children has been with kids between the ages of 8-13. It sounds awful, but I'd much rather be teaching more difficult material. Also, although I am in the P/J (Primary/Junior) B.Ed. program, I plan on getting my certification to teach older grades as well. With my undergraduate degree in French it will definitely help open up more job opportunities.

Top 10 Things That Scare Me

mercredi le 18 juillet 2012

                                                                                               

Being someone who has always been a relatively anxious person, perhaps I have more fears than most, but I thought 10 was a solid number, so here they are – my greatest fears…and no one better take advantage of this >.<

1)     Death/ Dying prematurely – until relatively recently this fear didn’t really surface. It was only after I was diagnosed with G.A.D. that this was the underlying cause for much of my anxiety. The idea of not being able to control when and where your life will end is a crippling fear for me. It’s not even so much just the thought of me dying, but also the possibility of having those closest to me pass away that is terrifying. I know it will happen eventually, and I have no doubt my reaction will be far from pleasant. I hate change, and death is a permanent change that you can’t undo. Most of the time I’m able to keep these thoughts at bay by keeping my mind busy and not allowing myself to dwell on these thoughts. I’ve already written a full-length post on this topic so feel free to read that…I won’t waste my time re-writing it and repeating myself.

2)     Being Alone – not just being alone in the sense of being home alone, but also being alone in life aka without a partner/husband/significant other. As a huge extrovert, I thrive around people and loathe being alone. While time isolated is both necessary and healthy, I don’t particularly enjoy it. Even as a child when I had to spend time alone, I would often talk to my mirror or my stuffed animals. Who am I kidding? I still do that :P

3)     Sharks – my fear of sharks started when I was 8 or 9 years old, after watching the movie Flipper. Yes, I know Flipper is about a dolphin and is also the source of my crush on the actor Elijah Wood, but back on track. There is a hammerhead shark aptly named Scar in the movie, and in a particularly vivid scene that I still remember over a decade later – the protagonist mistakes a dorsal fin gliding through the water for that of Flipper, when it is actually Scar. For nearly a year and a half after watching that film, I was terrified to have any part of my limbs dangling over the bed for fear that a mouthful of teeth would chomp them off. I remember having to go to the washroom in the middle of the night, and launching myself as far away from the bed as possible so that the “shark” that lived under the bed wouldn’t get my feet.

4)     The Dark – it isn’t so much the dark that scares me, it’s what is in the dark – the unknown. I remember having frequent night terrors as a kid, thinking that there was some big scary man lurking outside my window waiting for me to fall asleep so that he could pounce. These thoughts led to many sleepless nights as you can very well imagine. Watching countless episodes of American Justice, Cold Case Files led to multiple panic attacks thinking that I was going to get attacked and murdered in the shower or at night. I have always have had an overactive imagination and the fact that those TV shows were based on true crime cases didn’t help quell the horrible scenarios in my head.

5)     Horror films – I have always been a visual person. I believe what I see, so when I see one of these films logically I realize that they are filming it on a set somewhere with actors, but because I visually see it – I am unable to shake the images in my mind. Coupled with ominous music, horror movies have been the cause of many nightmares. I have only ever seen maybe half a dozen horror films in my entire life – including 28 Days Later and FearDotCom – almost all of which were at slumber parties when I was in my early teens. I have never been much of a fan of being scared. It’s not an emotion I’m a fan of. I tend to watch mostly comedies. I love laughing and am very easily amused…plus reality can be scary enough at times, having to constantly hear about the terrible things happening in the world (ie: war, child soldiers, honour killings, serial killers, pedophiles, etc.)

                                                                                

6)     My boyfriend lol…. While I am not serious about this one, a couple of my friends have claimed that my boyfriend scares the hell out of them :P No idea where this one comes from, but a friend of mine claims he has a “dark aura”…whatever the hell that means. Meh, I adore him anyways…despite the pain in the ass he is

7)     Failure – a pretty common fear I suppose, though this one doesn’t surface very often. I hate failing at anything, whether it’s a test I studied hard for, or getting a new job, or perhaps the newest romantic conquest. The feeling of inadequacy is not a pleasant one, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has battled feeling like they weren’t good enough. I want to be successful and the thought of not being able to reach that goal scares me.

8)     Losing / Forgetting Things – While this has rarely ever happened to me, the thought of forgetting my keys or wallet or perhaps a doctors appointment has struck my sub-conscious during dreams. I have woken up in a cold sweat in a state of panic thinking that I have forgotten to study for a final exam that morning, when in fact there was no such thing. There is also that mini-heart attack that occurs when I cannot find my cell phone.

9)     Fire – While I love candles, the thought of leaving burning candles unattended fills me with anxiety. Ironic I know, when people light candles to relax, and in my case it just ends up stressing me out more. Even when I know that there is nothing in the immediate vicinity that can possibly catch on fire, my imagination goes to work again and thinks up the worst case scenario. I’m not even entirely sure where this fear comes from – I’ve never had anything catch fire before, or had a house burn down.

10) Aging/ Growing Old – How very appropriate considering today is my 23rd birthday. I have often been told that I look young for my age, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. However, like almost everything on this list, aging is something I can’t control. The thought of being wrinkly and saggy one day both disgusts and saddens me. I know it’s a gradual process. I know I won’t wake up one morning 25 years older but the thought of my body and mind changing with age is a disturbing thought. I recently watched the movie Take This Waltz where the theme of the movie was “The new always becomes old.” While this was pertaining more to the romantic plotline of the film, the theme holds true with the human body. New relationships eventually lose their excitement and skin loses its firmness.

June: A Month of Zen

I can’t believe it’s June already; the halfway point of 2012.

I am officially all moved into the new apartment. I actually got to move in a day early because of the weather forecast, which was shockingly accurate. It’s been three days in the new place and despite the fact I currently have no internet or television, I’m greatly enjoying it (I’m currently typing this from one of the many public libraries in Kingston). Everything is more or less unpacked and I’m still getting used to the fact that my two roommates and the three guys who live in the apartment upstairs won’t be moving back in until September.

Even though the move is over, there are still plenty of things on my to-do list. I need to re-apply for OSAP for the upcoming school year, get my police check done for teacher’s college, register for classes in July and eventually get the internet installed – just to name a few. It still hasn’t hit me yet that I’m going back to school in the fall. This past year has been the first year since I was in kindergarten that I haven’t been a student. While I have enjoyed my year off from studies, I’m relieved to finally be finishing up my schooling this year. I’m excited to be headed back because of the social aspect as well. Many of my friends I met in classes and through clubs while I was at the University of Ottawa, and when I left I had the added challenge of meeting new people here. I’m one of 450ish students entering the Education program at Queen’s and only one of maybe 25 looking to be a French teacher. I’ll be playing Quizbowl again this year, am hoping to keep playing intramural badminton and perhaps join a French club.

The boyfriend and I are getting along famously. He’s been over a couple of times since I moved and because he was unable to help with the move, he shall be meeting my parents hopefully in the next couple of weeks :P He’s such a doll. This weekend we had a pizza and movie date night. Movie of choice? The newest film adaptation of The Three Musketeers – don’t even get me started about how awful it was. As a massive fan of Alexandre Dumas, the screenwriters butchered the hell out of it. Storyline was similar I suppose, but three of the characters didn’t die like they should have according to the novel. The biggest part that threw me was the technology that seemed to exist during 17^th century France – airships and security systems? I don’t think so. It just didn’t jive with the time and rest of the story. Perhaps just a pet peeve of mine as well, but they anglicised all of the names, most notably “Aramis” with a strong emphasis on the “S” when it is supposed to be silent. Personally if a name is French, it should be pronounced in French. Milady de Winter wasn’t portrayed as even half of the evil conniving bitch she was supposed to be. All in all, a pretty big disappointment but it was made better by the fact it was with my new squeeze – he makes many things tolerable. Unlike me, he didn’t mind the movie…but having read the book I was fuming the entire time.

The French Open is currently underway in Paris (one of the four Gland Slams on the ATP tennis circuit for those of you who don’t follow the sport) and as expected I’m rooting for Nadal. Upon moving into my new place I have one entire wall covered with exclusively photos and posters of the tennis player, which I have aptly called my “Nadal Wall”. Rafa is a 6 time winner of the event and if he wins this year, he will have the record for the most number of wins at that event in the Open Era. Both the boyfriend and I are massive fans and have been following it since it started. Currently on the men’s side they are in the round of 32. Nadal is still in contention. It’s funny to be dating a tennis player and fan – prior to him, none of my friends played or gave a damn about the sport :P He no doubt knows more than I do and it’s awesome to be constantly learning things. It will only help my trivia knowledge for tournaments this upcoming year when I play Quizbowl for Queen’s University.

I started reading the highly controversial new series “Fifty Shades of Grey” a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t realize it was a trilogy until I poked my head into the local Chapters bookstore. Currently I’m 70% done the second book. While it’s a pretty easy read, I can see why the book is raising some eyebrows. Not to give the whole plot away but to summarize it’s about a wealthy businessman in the US and how he falls in love with a woman he wants to be his sex slave (submissive). It is definitely geared towards a mature audience with all the detailed erotica. While I understand that sex is the underlying theme of the novel, after a while the detailed sex scenes get repetitive and lose the desired effect. I’m to the point now where I’m just skimming over them. Only the rest of the second book and all of the third to go.

I landed a fulltime job for the summer here in Kingston working at the YMCA so I’m relieved my job hunt is over and I can look forward to the rest of the summer. On top of working this summer, I will also be celebrating my 23^rd *gasp* birthday in mid-July and going to the Roger’s Cup (tennis tournament) in Toronto early in the month of August with the boyfriend. He hasn’t been since 2006 and I’m pretty sure he’s more pumped than I am…well maybe. I had to miss last year because of my job last summer so I don’t want that to be the case this summer. When I did go in 2010 it was with a friend who lived in the Toronto area but who didn’t follow tennis at all. I think it will be a lot more fun with a fellow tennis fan/ my significant other :P

Signing off for now – I gotta grab a shower and run some errands. À la prochaine!

May: A Month of Tranquility

Upon looking up the word tranquility, one will discover that the word is synonymous with calmness. According to Buddhist texts, it is linked with a connection to the natural environment.

Because of the gorgeous weather we have been experiencing here in Kingston, I have been reaping the benefits by traveling everywhere by bike. I'm kicking myself for spending any money at all on a monthly bus pass :( Biking has got to be one of my favourite things. For one, you can get everywhere 4 times faster than walking. It's also an awesome workout! While Kingston as a city is pretty flat, there are occasional hills which definitely get your heart rate going and lungs working. My body is in a way built for biking. I've always had thunder thighs and using my legs so often has only built more muscle and toned my legs. I've been biking to and from work, doing groceries and sporadically visiting the boyfriend who doesn't have his license either. Biking also runs on fat and saves you money, and parking is a non-issue. The only real downside to biking is that miserable weather can make for one miserable bike ride. I've been taking advantage of this mode of transportation to explore Kingston and take piles of pictures.

All this additional time outside has tanned my legs and arms a little and I have a smattering more freckles on my arms and face. I have decided that I would like to work towards biking a marathon (well the distance of a marathon aka 42km ) around Kingston over the course of the summer. I've been making a lot of goals...this one will be a fitness/personal goal.

I'm moving to my new apartment in just under two weeks, and I will be starting the purge and packing process tomorrow on my day off from work. I have a pile of stuff to throw out and a bunch of clothes to donate. I figure the more I can get rid of, the less I have to move. I'm super stoked about the new place.

It's also been a month today since the bf and I have been together. I know a month isn't much of a milestone...but damn it went by fast. He's a doll and because he's a tennis player...I have learned far more about the ATP circuit than I thought I would. I've also decided to start doing a fantasy tennis pool as well, although based on my luck with the recent NHL hockey pool I did at work...I clearly suck at picking winning teams. Every single one of the teams I picked got ousted in the first round except for the New Jersey Devils.

I'm very happy with where life is headed and living in the present. There is so much to look forward to in the upcoming months, which has left me with a feeling of peace and contentment (gosh that sounds so corny:S). I'm just blissed out and so grateful for everything that has happened/ come my way in the last little while.

My favourite things ....continued, part 4

As an educated and relatively health-conscious individual, I like knowing what I'm putting in my body - both internally (food) and externally (body products, soaps, shampoos, etc). I, like millions of others around the world, shower, moisturize and primp. But how many people actually know what they are putting in their bodies? Skin is the largest organ of the body. Anything that is applied externally gets absorbed into the skin and as a result into the bloodstream. As a general rule, if you can't eat it, don't put it on your skin. I find it ironic when body lotions and various other body products carry the disclaimer "For external use only" when it winds up getting absorbed internally anyways.

Back in the Roman Empire, bathers would slather themselves in olive oil and then scrape it off. They didn't use soaps. It amazes me the amount of chemicals and unpronounceable ingredients in cosmetics, lotions and even hair spray today. Like what is "PEG-2 STEARATE" or "PG-PROPYL SILANETRIOL" or better yet "DIHYDROXYPROPYLTRIMONIUMCHLORIDE"? It really is mind blowing how these products have managed to get approval to sell in supermarkets and drug stores across the world. And you wonder why rates of cancer have spiked over the last several decades - look at the amount of toxins we are exposing ourselves to on a daily basis.

It is difficult to find any shampoo, laundry detergent, or soap that doesn't contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS). This is the ingredient that causes the lather that most of us are accustomed to. It is also however a carcinogen, hormone alterer and causes ulcers, skin irritation, decrease in male fertility and PMS symptoms, just to name a few. http://www.natural-health-information-centre.com/sodium-lauryl-sulfate.html

At P'lovers (the organic/environmental store in downtown Kingston I blogged about a few months ago), I discovered a local and healthy alternative to the perfume laden and chemical filled products at Loblaws. Shiva's Delight is the brainchild of Casey Boyce, a young mother in Kingston. In her home, she manufactures and mixes soaps, body butters, body oils and serums, all with natural ingredients which are filled with good things for your skin. And imagine this - all the ingredients you can pronounce! From Olive Oil, to Shea Butter, to Sunflower Seed Oil all her products are chocked full of natural moisturizers and no foreign ingredients. I personally have purchased the Tangerine Chocolate Body Butter (the only thing that worked on my peeling and calloused feet), The Exotic Lime Body Oil (makes a great massage oil, or after shaving), and a bar of Chocolate Swirl Soap. They not only smell good...they do good for your skin. While shopping around her home, she also threw in a couple of Bath Bombs for showing her a couple of receipts from P'lovers and a free sample of Bog Mud Facial Wash.

As expected, Shiva's Delight is slightly more expensive than the products you would find in a Wal-Mart. But they are nothing ridiculous. I bought the Tangerine Chocolate Body Butter before Christmas for 15$ and I still have more than half of it left. Did I mention it smells like Terry's Chocolate Oranges? It's a small price to pay, knowing I'm not filling my body with unneeded toxins.

In addition to all of the wonderful bath and body products, she also has a large selection of beautiful sterling silver and costume jewellery. While she does have all of her products at her home, the general population can find her products at P'lovers (123 Princess Street) as well. Feel free to check out her website: http://www.shivasdelight.com/

For those of you in Kingston, or who will be in Kingston on a weekend should check out the local Farmer's Market at the Memorial Center. Shiva's Delight, and dozens of other local vendors will be there with their natural products and produce. On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/427777240574939/

My favourite poems/ quotes :)