Third Year Teaching Placement: Day One

Today was my first day of my third year teaching placement and I found it kind of disappointing actually. So the night before I had the hardest time falling asleep because I was so nervous/excited/unsure about what the next day had to offer. Some of it had to do with my host teacher not emailing me about what time to get to school, where to meet her in the morning, what to bring, etc. The morning of, I woke up, got ready, made myself some breakfast and then headed out the door. On my commute to the high school, I forgot which bus stop to get off so I mistakenly got off a stop earlier and had to walk the rest of the way which was kind of a bummer.

Upon my arrival, I went into the main office and talked with the secretary who thought I looked familiar, and she was indeed correct because I met her last year. She called down my host teacher and then I met her and followed her to the English office. It was exactly how I remembered it to be and all. She gave me a little manilla folder of all the resources for the classes, and I felt sort of unprepared going into these classes without having read the books prior. During the first period, I introduced myself and then sat to the side of the classroom to observe. It was a grade 12 class and they were reading the novel "Station Eleven" which is a post apocalyptic sort of novel. She just took up some questions and then read 2 chapters out loud. This happened in the next grade 9 class as well, and I found it to be a bit boring. This sort of teaching is what they tell you in teachers school not to do, just worksheets and then read it out loud. However, in that grade 9 class there was a kid named Brandon who you could tell was the problem student. He was never focused, and during the beginning of the class his hair gel spilled all over his backpack and I had to help him clean it up. I was later told that he comes from a single parent household, lived in a group home for a month, and has been called by the CAS several times.

After that class, we had lunch which was sort of nice because I was getting hungry by then and we went to the staff room to eat. I don't really enjoy going because I feel like it's weird and awkward and I can never really contribute to the conversation because they talk about subjects that I don't feel like I can offer any comments on. After lunch was prep where I just sat at my little desk and read the novel "Station Eleven" and attempted not to fall asleep. During the last period I did basically the same thing sit in the back, read my own book, and have her take up questions and read out loud. I hope tomorrow is more enjoyable. 14 more days to go.

Until next time!

Suzy