Love the 4/5's!!

After only 2 observation days, I feel that I am going to really enjoy teaching in this 4/5 class. From observing some lessons, these students seem like an extremely creative bunch!! The quality and detail that went into some of their work was truly impressive. I am thrilled for the topics that I will be teaching, especially Grade 4 Medieval Times and a poetry unit for both grades. I am thoroughly impressed by the independence the Grade 5's demonstrate while the classroom teacher is working with the Grade 4's. This may make my job a little bit easier!
I love the small cozy atmosphere of the school and all the staff are very welcoming and helpful!
It is unfortunate that I will only be spending 4 weeks with this class, but I am looking forward to my teaching time with this class!

My New School!

I recently made a quick introductory visit to my new placement school. I am in a Grade 4/5 class at St. Joseph's School. As soon as I walked into the school, I knew that I would be comfortable and well-suited to this new environment. It is a very rural school, and I am used to this kind of atmosphere as I attended a rural elementary and secondary school. It school population is approximately 130, compared to the 450 students that attended my last placement school, St. Vincent de Paul. I had a chance to meet all of the teachers and I briefly spoke with the principal, Mrs. Condon, who was one of the principals that came in to talk to us about interviews. I am thrilled to be working with 2 associate teachers. They seem very energetic and eager to guide me through this process and they made me feel at home in my new classroom. I had some anxiety and nervousness about entering a split grade, but after my short visit with my associates and the students, I am ready to take on this challenge and I am looking forward to my 4 weeks of teaching there.

Interviews..... AHHHHHH!

With applications well in progress, it brings a HUGE awareness that there will hopefully be interviews for us in the near future. It is definately and eye opener to the fact that this year is quickly coming to an end. *TEAR (that's for you Antonia!!)
The interview process will be a stressful situation, but I am very thankful to have had the four principals come in and talk with us about the process and go over the sort of questions that will be asked. This was a great help and we were very fortunate for them to take time out of their busy schedules to give us some guidance! Additionally, I felt that asking questions to fellow classmates was really beneficial. I feel that it was a comfortable experience and we were able to give each other feedback and suggestions and discuss as a group how we would answer particular questions!
I feel that we will all do well when it comes time for interviews!!

Social Issues Day 2

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop on Social Issues this past week. The plenary session about teaching the Holocaust was extremely moving and worthwhile. The information presented by Carson was insightful and the packaged that was provided will serve to be beneficial for teaching the Holocaust. Having Max speak on this personal experiences of surviving through the Holocaust was moving and demonstrated the importance of teaching this period in history to students. I had the opportunity to take the Catholic Morals and TRIBES workshops in the afternoon. The speaker at the Catholic Morals workshop was the same individual that we had speak at a retreat we attended for the Pre-Service Religion course. He was, once again, a great speaker and created a comfortable environment that allowed us to pose various questions regarding the Catholic faith and how to address questions and issues that may arise in the classroom in a way that demonstrates our Catholic faith.
I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to attend a workshop on TRIBES. I had heard of this program before, but was unfamiliar of the theory and practice of it. The speaker was excellent and gave us a good introduction on how to implement TRIBES into the classroom effectively. It is definately something that I hope to incorporate into my second block and in my future classroom.
Overall, it was an enjoyable and successful day!