A convincing act

I was in the middle of teaching an English session with my grade 3/4 class. The students were working quietly and were well-focused, and I was circulating around the room monitoring their work, as you do.

An idea suddenly occurred to Daniel and he looked up from his work to ask, "Hey, how come we don't have any student teachers anymore?"

I smiled and replied, "I'm sure you'll have some more soon."

Unbeknown to them, I am currently their student teacher, working in their class for a day and a half on top of my specialist classes. To them, I am just the specialist teacher, for some odd reason helping out with a couple of sessions. I must be convincing!

MSTIE 1

Welcome to MSTIE!

MSTIE is the Maths Science Teaching Integrated Experience that our course has created for third year B.Ed. students to do instead of 'normal' rounds. 36 hours of painstaking planning later, we have a professional little folder and some idea of where we're headed. Despite all the slog and criticism, I must say I am so far enjoying the distinct lack of nightly lesson plans and evaluations! In a way, it's much more like real teaching than anything else we've ever done.

Tenth week "It's almost over!"

Sorry I'm a little late publishing the final semester post: week ten. For me, this week has been a great feeling of "it's almost over." Prac is over (which was a very educational and even enjoyable experience), exams are looming, and there is a lot of catch-up. How frustrating when you just can't be productive!

As I contemplate the end of the semester, I wonder...
1. How much of our present-focus is stolen by us wishing away things, holding out for the end of something without enjoying the journey there, and making ourselves useful along the way?
2. How many of us are tempted to just give up, when we are so close to the finishing line? Earlier in the semester, I talked about persevering in the race.

Faithful readers, do you relate to either of these?

Practicum 3 - What will it be?

Today marks the commencement of another three week school placement - Practicum 3 (previously known as Practicum 3A until the recent invention of MSTIE). I'm always nervous about starting a new prac, one because it's a LOT of hard work, and two because it's like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get (sometimes simply divine and other times just the peanuts with all the chocolate already sucked off!).

I visited last week and got the 'bad vibes.' I had to remind myself this morning that I don't even believe in vibes as I headed off to school for the first real day. I'm at Maiden Gully Primary School, which is actually turning out to be a nice little school with friendly staff, and my Prep/1 class are beautiful. So far.

Anyway, you probably won't hear a lot from me for the next three weeks. Here's hoping prac stays positive once I start actually teaching!

Peace out.