Week Two

My second week in the Education program has almost come to an end. I was engaged in my first placement this week, where I spent two mornings in a grade 4 classroom at a local school. Welcome back to portables! It reminds me of negative experiences from my years in the portables as an elementary school student...

Let's just say that it is a very different experience being in a Canadian classroom, coming out of teaching in Ghana. This is also my first time in the public school system, so I'm being forced to learn the cultural and secular routines and boundaries very quickly.

My supervising teacher is wonderful! He just took over the class after the Christmas break as the previous teacher retired so he is still trying to rein in the class after their half a year of "partying", more or less. He has taught kindergarten for the past couple years and he has played a huge part in introducing technology into kindergarten in an effective and meaningful way. He was bragging to me that they are using his methods even down in the States. The students were getting excited about the SMART board that is supposed to have gone up at the end of the week. I have never even seen one before, so having one in my placement classroom will definitely be interesting and I'm sure that I will be writing down many pointers on how and when to use it.

There are five computers/laptops in the classroom and one iPad. At the beginning of each day, the teacher asks for a volunteer to pull names out of a jar to determine who will have the chance to go on the laptops or the iPad when they have finished their work or there is free time. I'm not entirely sure if the games and such that are on these devices are educational or not, but it does give incentive for the students to do their work, if nothing else. It has been good to see that the students whose names have been drawn still don't rush through their work even though they are promised time on the electronics afterwards.

It has been a humbling experience so far to work alongside my supervising teacher. He, thankfully, is not afraid to point out different ways of doing things to me...usually directly related to something that I just did wrong, but it is wonderful to hear his constructive criticism and the manner in which he gives it is encouraging and not demeaning. It is showing me just how little I really know on the "minor", inner workings of teaching.