We just play with Volleyballs!!!

WE DON'T PLAY WITH BARBIE DOLLS...

WE JUST PLAY WITH VOLLEYBALLS!!!!

WE DON'T WEAR NO MINI SKIRTS...

WE JUST WEAR OUR WOODLAND SHIRTS!!!!

GO WOLVES!!!!!

Coaching jr. girl volleyball...what an experience! Coaching the junior girls volleyball has definitely showed me another side of what being a teacher is. These girls really look up to their coaches (being myself and their principal) to help them play their best. They get soo excited when they make us proud. Little do they know, what we are proud of goes way past the scoreboard. Seeing them use the strategies that have been taught to them, working as a team and doing their best is all that is needed. Sure, it does help that we are third in the league!!!

Keep it up girls...GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WOLVES!!!

First day...come and gone

Well I hope my fellow counselling group members had a successful first day! Mine was a little rough around the edges but pulled through in the end.

My first lesson, an Introduction to Rural and Urban Geography was a tough period. To start off, I have never seen or taught a social studies unit and therefore was a little unaware of how exactly it should be taught. To make the situation harder, my students thought they could take advantage of the fact that my associate was not the one teaching them. After the class was over, my associate chatted with me immediately after. We discussed more what was expected of me in social studies and I now have more structured lessons for those periods. In addition, we agreed that I would have to show my discontent with their behaviour during the social studies period before my math lesson began.

After having time to settle down over lunch and a prep, I was ready for my second lesson...Introduction to Data Management. Before I started my lesson I did discuss with my students that i was very disappointed with their previous behaviour and pointed out that I deserve the same respect they give to any of the other teachers at the school. After this discussion, the students were better behaved. They came over to the meeting place and were all very engaged with my lesson. I had prepared some props in advance and the students knew immediately that they were going to have to sort them. Not only did I have certain students sort the shapes, I had the others guess what the thinking was behind the grouping. This kept them all very engaged with the activity. Even during their seat work, the students worked independently and raised their hands if they had questions...surprising what a little behaviour talk will do!!! One of the questions was causing many difficulties for the students, so instead of having them work individually on the question, we took it up as a group. Overall, it was a much more organized lesson.

Well day one is now done and day two is coming. Off to lesson planning for the future.

First day countdown

First day of the teaching block is in less than 24 hours away...the waves of emotions tell all! It is hard to believe that we are already at this point of our "teacher's college" year! A mix of excitement and nervousness has been building inside of me all weekend, all this planning and work we have done over the past 3 years is finally going to be put into practice.

Tomorrow, I will be teaching two lessons to my class, Math and Social Studies. I will be starting a new unit in both subjects which leaves me with an empty pool to just jump right into. In some ways, I think is has made my lesson planning a little easier, no need to worry about where my associate has already been, just need to worry about what direction to take my students.

Will keep you posted on how the lessons go as the weeks go by, but it is time to get back to the lesson planning.