A new job!

Well I started a new job about 6 weeks ago and I am now just finally getting into the groove of teaching.  I am not an English teacher and that is what I am teaching right now!  I feel out of my element sometimes and have to sit back and relax… which is hard to do most of the time!  I am extremely grateful that I was able to get the job especially since its small town SK and jobs are not a dime a dozen!

I do have one issue with this new job that I am not used to and am having a hard time dealing with… that is classroom management with students that don’t take women in authority positions well!  I don’t think that it has anything to do with the fact that its a small town but I do think that these particular students have a hard time acknowledging a female in charge!  I have never had this issue before and feel frustrated with figuring out how to deal with it!  How do you prove that you are an authority figure when students don’t see you as one?  That is the question of the day or week… and I need to figure out the answer!

Well there are only days left of my Internship!!

If you were to ask me in September whether this day would actually come, I would have laughed and said that it is too far away to tell. I have successfully finished my “block” of teaching classes and now am just kinda hanging out til the Christmas break begins. I am still very much involved with certain activities within the school, such as my early morning class, but I am also able to jump around and sit in on other classrooms other than the one that I was teaching out of. It is a nice feeling to know that I can float around without having the stress of teaching at the same time!
However, I have this feeling that I am going to miss this school, the kids and the classes that I have been teaching when I am gone. The idea of leaving is exciting and sad all in one. Knowing and understanding that this may be my life for the next few years is one that I don’t like. Jumping around from job to job hoping to find something more permanent will be emotionally as well as physically exhausting!!

Wow what a PLAY!!!

So the play is over and it was a great success!!  I am amazed at how lucky I am to have been apart of such a great production!  There were obviously little things that happened that were stressful and made for interesting times throughout this whole experience but I do have to admit that I would never go back and change it!  I am soooo happy that I decided to step out of my realm and become apart of the musical during my internship!!

The play was called UrineTown which is not the most thrilling of names but it was one of the funniest plays that I have ever been too!  The kids were so good and so into what they were doing that I have to admit it was very amazing! Below are just some photos that I took that show some of the cast and crew getting prepared for the opening night and the last night of the show!

The Music Director and one of the leads to the play!!

A few Cast Members before the show!

Cast Members getting ready for the show!

Love the bird in her hair! This was her idea and I thought it was a great addition to the play!

The Crew getting ready for the show!

Me supervising my Crew members!!

Little Sally getting her hair done for the show! Those hair and makeup girls definitely had their work cut out for them!

Me and one of my tag babies that is in the play!!

A Crew member having some fun with a sign!!

Mr. McQueen and Fipp from the play!

The girls that were apart of my Crew!!

Last minute touches before the play begins!

She looks so professional with the head set on!

The play diagrams for the Crew to follow!

Its almost at the end…

My life seems to have spun out of control… I just don’t understand where all of my time seems to have gone!  I swear that yesterday was the day that I just started my 3/5 week block and that I am just starting to get into the information that I need to teach… but today I came into my social 9 class realizing that I only had 3 more days with the students to get all the material organized and into them!  3 DAYS!!  I am feeling slightly overwhelmed and totally out of control right now which are two feelings that I absolutely hate feeling!  Where has all the time gone?  What am I going to do with all the information and activities that I have planned for the students?  Where is my sanity?

When I got into school today and was finally heading up to my office after the long theater arts morning class I ran into a teacher that shares the same office along the way.  This teacher has become an individual that I have bounced ideas off of and have asked many different questions on how certain scenarios sound to her… this morning I began to ask her if the way that I am feeling is suppose to be natural or whether I should learn to cope better and maybe relax.  She just laughed at me and welcomed me to the next 30 years of my life!!  That was an eye openner for me personally.  I was not expecting that comment or the realization that my life is going to fly by and be overwhelming all at once!!  The joys of reality!!!

My so called life!

The last few weeks have been a wurl wind for me!  I have gotten engaged, started my 3 week (actually 5 week) block for my internship, began backstage management for the school play, and have been on many different news shows, news broadcastings and in newspaper articles over the whole engagement.  I have also been able to successfully plan a wedding around all of this in a short period of time… only 5 months to go til the big day!!  This whole semester has been a complete blur and that includes the teaching aspect of it as well!  If someone was to go ask me how I am liking my teaching experience and try to find out which experience is the most memorable in my mind… I would have to stare at them blankly for awhile!!  I have no recollection of any particular moment in my life that involves teaching and all I remember about the teaching is that I am loving it even though I really don’t remember what I do from day to day!  I am very grateful that I am a planner with everything under control even though I feel lost half of the time!!

Other than all of that, I am loving this whole experience as a teacher and can not wait to apply for jobs… this is a career path that I can not wait to be apart of full time!!!  YAY!!!

So much to do.. So many decisions to make!!!

I have come to the realization that my Internship is going to be over way faster than I am completely prepared for!!  I will actually admit that I am in panic mode!

Come January of the New Year I will be teaching… whether I will be a sub or a contract teacher I do not know yet.  However, the thought of getting my resume out for the world to see was a thought that I am not prepared to have right now.  Yet there are people coming to me from all different directions informing me to get my butt in gear!!  I feel overwhelmed and disorganized!!  I know that finding a job of some sort is the next step in this logical order, however, I just feel the need to get through this part of the order first!!  Hence the feeling of panic and utter loss of organization!!

So here I am now hoping that just keying down the feelings that I have right now will help me get them at least organized so that I can look into getting the materials ready for my applications of employment!!  So far I still feel that stab of panic at the back of my throat!!  Yup… its definitely still there!!

All I can think about at this particular moment is teaching my next two classes about bibliographies and helping the students proof read the essay’s that they are to hand into me tomorrow… and one decision has just been made!!  I will concentrate on my students and the classes that I have right now and when I feel the time is here I will then get my life organized enough to begin with the job applications!!  There is only so much time in a person’s life and right now that time is being taken up with just teaching everyday… my Multi-tasking skills are yet to be tuned in the direction of everyday life other than teaching!!!

Time flies!!

So yesterday I was able to finalize my 3 week block of classes that I will be teaching.  All has worked out extremely well!!  I will be teaching my two Information Processing 10 classes that I already am teaching til December 12th, Social Studies 9 will be picked up on October 20th and dropped November 21st, and the Career and Work Experience 20 will be picked up November 3rd and dropped November 21st.  All is nicely in order and looks so organized, however, while I was making this schedule with the teachers that I am taking over from, I forgot to incorporate my extra-curricular activities and when I will be busiest with those!!  Looks like ALL of November will be a blur!!  I am helping out with the Musical here at the school and that just happens to fall on my last week of a four class rotation… oh my!!  Not only am I involved with the after school portion of the musical, I am also helping with the early morning stuff as well!!  So early mornings and late evenings with no time to prepare will mean that I will have to be extremely prepared before this whole ordeal begins!  But I do have to admit that no matter how busy I will be during that time it will be a great experience for what teaching full time is really like!!  Hahaha… the joys of over booking oneself!!  I guess that the next few weeks will be dedicated to getting as much planning done as possible so that I don’t have a mental break down halfway through my block!!!

Besides all of that planning that was made yesterday, this whole internship process has been very laid back and enjoyable.  I have had time to get acquainted with the staff and the students.  During this time I have also become very comfortable with the school.  The administration staff is tremendously helpful whenever there is a question that needs to get answered as well as whenever they see me walking around looking confused!!  There have been times where they have known where I was to go without me having to say a work… its almost like they can read your minds!!  This whole experience has been extremely useful and I do not look forward to it ending!  The only thing that I can think of that is a bonus to the end of this time is that I don’t have to go back to the university and pretend like I am a student again… I can just jump right into the work world and begin using all the skills that I have gained through this time!

Interesting… I never thought of that!

Well last week I began to realize that I need to really break down my lessons for my students. I have come to the realization that I need to pay more attention to smaller areas of my lesson and to do those in one day instead of trying to accomplish everything at once! I guess I didn’t understand before that students may or may not have prior knowledge of the information being discussed and with that I need to really be simplistic on the lesson for the day.  I have to remember what it was like to read the material for the first time and get an understanding of what needs to be done.

With this realization last week I began to feel guilty for the amount of work that I have been expecting/demanding from my grade 10 class.  These poor students have been expected to finish assignments and keep things organized at a much higher level.  I have decided that I will ease back a little so that the students have a chance to get the assignments done and get a good understanding of what is expected of them instead of just spitting out information just to pass the class.  Oh dear!!

However, through this understanding and through this realization of what I should be doing with my grade 10 class, I have come to realize some more about myself.  I am a perfectionist that thinks that all people should know what I am talking about  with hardly any discussion… I need to get out of this university mode and the mode of how professors have treated us in the past.  Grade 10 students are not adults that know alot of different kinds of information, instead they are youth that need guidance and patience to lead them to a knowledgeable future!!

I hate being sick!!

So I have decided that being sick and having to teach does not work very well together! Having to be on top of your game and yet feeling like the game is being played way above your head is not my idea of a good time!! The last couple days have been a blur due to a really nasty head cold. I am throughly amazed with my ability to still come up with ideas for teaching during all the fog that is in my head. My lesson for today is one that I don’t actually remember creating or that I don’t remember even thinking about but it is one that works and is very interesting still. Now I look back on my high school years and realize why teachers with head colds were so mean and cranky during that time!! I felt like I didn’t want to do anything and having to keep 30 students on task ever class was a trial and a half! I was so happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it came to the end of the day yesterday! Having the option to skip a day with no real consequence would have been fabulous but that is not a choice in the world of teaching!! The dedication and the responsibility that teachers put on themselves is amazing and one that I am going to have to get used to. So long are the days where you show up when you want and you can do your homework from home!! Hahahaha… oh to be a teenager again or even a university student!! Oh wait… I actually enjoy not being either of those and quite look forward to my long days and interesting assignments to mark!!

Another week starts tomorrow!!

For the most of last week I was at an Internship seminar with my cooperating teacher. The seminar was amazing! I had my doubts when it came right down to it and I really wasn’t looking forward to going to the seminar at all, but I have to admit that I enjoyed ever minute of what went on. It was really nice to settle down and get to know the person that is going to be evaluating me at the end of this whole internship seminar. I liked the fact that my coop and I have similar expectations to what is going to happen and what is expected to happen throughout this semester. However, now I realize that there is a ton of things to do and not very much time to do it! I really want to make this experience the best that it possibly could be but I think that I will run out of time… I guess that just means that I will have to bring those ideas into the classroom when I first begin teaching. This whole experience is exciting and a ton of work but its all so worth it in the end!!