update
A have a moment or two to update and then I have to get back to work. I'm absolutely swamped and have no time - a nasty combination!
Thursday and Friday we all had orientation at our second practicum schools. Mine is great, the kids are wonderful - a mix of socio-economic levels and race and ability, but probably predominantly Chinese - they're very friendly, quite precocious, very endearing. The school's relaxed and caring and the staff are incredibly friendly and welcoming. It'd be a great place to work. The downside is the commute: it takes me over an hour and a half on subway and bus to get there. Which means I'll have to leave around 6:30 in the morning, or no later than a quarter to seven. Ouch. Makes for a long day, even though the school day is a normal amount of time (and shorter than the last school I was at).
My Associate Teacher is younger than I am, which is a little weird, and very friendly, which makes it hard to keep that kind of professional, subordinate position - she has to evaluate me, after all. But it'll be good working with her, collaborative and all that. It's worked out to be a great schedule: every second day I'll teach her grade 10 ESL Canadian history classes, which are back-to-back, so I'll be teaching the same lesson twice; and in the morning I'll be working in a special ed. class with a girl whose English isn't good and is in the credit recovery program.
So at the end of the day I'll really only be planning one lesson! That might sound a bit low but I think it's better to focus on quality rather than quantity and be stressed out of your brain, plus I get the experience of working with ELL kids and Special Ed kids. Makes me happy!
I haven't been doing anything lately except work on assignments, which are driving me mental, I hate them. I'm so behind! I haven't had a day off in quite a while, and I don't have much time to read either, which sucks. We did watch Flushed Away last night (Aardman Animations), which is hilarious, I loved it - but seriously, that's about the most exciting thing I've done in my spare time in ages! Sad eh?
Thursday and Friday we all had orientation at our second practicum schools. Mine is great, the kids are wonderful - a mix of socio-economic levels and race and ability, but probably predominantly Chinese - they're very friendly, quite precocious, very endearing. The school's relaxed and caring and the staff are incredibly friendly and welcoming. It'd be a great place to work. The downside is the commute: it takes me over an hour and a half on subway and bus to get there. Which means I'll have to leave around 6:30 in the morning, or no later than a quarter to seven. Ouch. Makes for a long day, even though the school day is a normal amount of time (and shorter than the last school I was at).
My Associate Teacher is younger than I am, which is a little weird, and very friendly, which makes it hard to keep that kind of professional, subordinate position - she has to evaluate me, after all. But it'll be good working with her, collaborative and all that. It's worked out to be a great schedule: every second day I'll teach her grade 10 ESL Canadian history classes, which are back-to-back, so I'll be teaching the same lesson twice; and in the morning I'll be working in a special ed. class with a girl whose English isn't good and is in the credit recovery program.
So at the end of the day I'll really only be planning one lesson! That might sound a bit low but I think it's better to focus on quality rather than quantity and be stressed out of your brain, plus I get the experience of working with ELL kids and Special Ed kids. Makes me happy!
I haven't been doing anything lately except work on assignments, which are driving me mental, I hate them. I'm so behind! I haven't had a day off in quite a while, and I don't have much time to read either, which sucks. We did watch Flushed Away last night (Aardman Animations), which is hilarious, I loved it - but seriously, that's about the most exciting thing I've done in my spare time in ages! Sad eh?