My Class is TOO Big, I Can’t Handle It!!

Somehow I’ve already completed two weeks of my placement. I cannot believe how quickly the time is passing—in no time at all I’ll stop being the teacher and become the student again. *sigh* How many sleeps until May?

So, my first week was AMAZING. Seriously. I officially and completely love this profession! My nerves completely dissolved by Wednesday, and my associate teacher even commented to me that he often forgets that I’m just a student teacher. (HOORAY!!!) That really meant a lot as he’s not the type of person to give undue praise—when he doesn’t like something he’s quite vocal about it.

This week I focused a mini-unit on popular culture and the kids really seemed to enjoy it! We’ve been doing “pop culture presentations” on their favourite item or aspect of pop culture, and so far I’ve been really impressed with them!! Monday is my last day of teaching (to finish up the presentations) and I’ll let you know which one was my favourite. I did a demo for them about… BLOGGING!! I didn’t let on that I was a blogger though, so my little site stays hidden. YAY

Wanna hear the funniest part of the week? Guess how many students I started out with in my class today—20? 33? 15?

Oh no. ONE. I had ONE student. haha! I thought yesterday’s class was small with four, but today went to a whooooooole new level. Here’s why: I am teaching in a small town where students actually get excused from school to go HUNTING. Yes, you read that correctly. They can miss 1 – 2 weeks to go hunting with their family.

…?!?!!?

I had never, ever heard of anything like this before, and SO many students participate in this!! It’s so bizarre! I also saw a tractor in the parking lot last week, just for the record.

Also, there was some sort of awards assembly this morning that the students could attend if they chose, which, obviously they did. Any excuse to miss class, right? After the assembly ended my AT rounded up two more students to bring my class total to a whopping THREE. It was hilarious. We ended up playing some word games and working on a creative writing piece. I love this job.

Anyway, that was my week!! Monday is my last day of “teaching”, and then I get to roam the school and observe any class I please!! I’m thinking I’m going to duck my head into some French classes, history, civics, career studies, essential level English and hopefully some Spec Ed. I’ll let you know how it goes!!

Oh, and thank you SO much for all your words of encouragement this week… they really helped me get past my nerves those first few days!!

Shop Girl*