Teaching*
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The Last One.
I am officially the last one. A few years ago, I worked with a group of teachers who quickly became my friends. We were all in LTOs (Long Term Occasional / Temporary teaching contracts) and had all been hired by the board at roughly the same time. We had all slogged through the early years of trying to get work, all had families now and all were putting in our time until a permanent position opened for us. One found work at her #1 choice school a few years ago, and I was SO happy for her. Then it was just three of us, putting in time until a job…
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Miss, Is Civics Important?
I had an interesting experience today that helped remind me not to judge a book by its cover. Earlier this week I got a call for a history assignment for today. I was reeeeeeally hoping it was actually history, and I lucked out. I walked into the office to grab my plans, and was thrilled with the schedule: Grade 10 History, Prep, then two back to back periods of civics (my fav). My morning was positively dreamy. My first period class was wonderful. I got to teach a lesson about the Great Depression AND help the kids write summaries. It was like blending both English and History into one, and…
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Not My Favourite Interview*
I just finished my whirlwind Monday cleaning, and procrastinating making my children’s lunches for tomorrow seemed more appealing than actually making them, so, here I am. I ended up taking all of last week off work because the kids and I were sick, so tomorrow is my first day back. I’m still not 100%, but I don’t really want to have to take any more time off either. Luckily I’m just booked for a morning, so I can come home and crawl into bed tomorrow afternoon if need be. It’s the best of both worlds. :) Tomorrow is another random assignment from the system. I’m heading to a school I…
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O Brother, Where Fart Thou?
I feel like my blog has been all doom and gloom lately because the kids and I have been sick and I’m tired pretty much all of the time. My throat feels a little bit like it’s on fire so that’s fun, but whatever. This too shall pass and all that. I have a story that I’ve been wanting to share with you, but I had to wait a little bit so it wasn’t super obvious which school it happened at. I’m usually pretty good at keeping my teacher face on when hilarious moments with students ensue, but there have moments when I’ve just about lost it or almost done…
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It’s Hammer Time*
I worked again today, back in the same classes I was in yesterday. I’ll be honest: for most of last night I was completely dreading it. It was long, challenging day and it was not my favourite. But when I woke up this morning I decided just to put on a brave face and get it over with… and I decided to take a new approach with my classes. When I walked in to my classroom this morning, I laid down the law. I usually try to be a laid back fun teacher, but it did not work with my classes yesterday. So, nice teacher went away and I decided…