teaching, teaching, teaching

So i've been teaching for two weeks now (well, two weeks worth of Tuesdays). I guess you can call it teaching, but it's more like mono-infected observation and interaction.

My first day of school was a gong show. I had to force myself to crawl out of bed at 5:45 in the morning, get dressed in my teacher clothes, do my hair and make-up and crawl into my car. Now this is a tough thing to do at the best of times, let alone when you have a high fever and all you want to do is sleep. Needless to say I was a wee bit late smushing into my car and I feared that I wasn't going to make it all the way to Scott Creek Middle School in Coquitlam in time to meet my teacher sponsor/school advisor (SA). After driving for an hour and a half in morning traffic, I finally arrived at the school. Yeah, I was a few minutes later than I wanted to be, but I wasn't late for class.

Here's my school: Scott Creek Middle School in Coquitlam, BC

So I made it down the hall to room A6, my classroom, found Mr.C (my SA) and a room full of grade 8 students (division 2). For my first class of the day, we took a class of students to the computer lab downstairs to work on researching the water cycle. Now this normally wouldn't be such a huge or daunting task, but my SA decided to use the period to deal with discipline problems outside in the hall. So there I am, falling over and wanting to faint, in control of an entire classroom of students that I don't even know the names of, desperately trying to prevent them from looking up disgusting things on the internet, and coercing them to actually do the work they are assigned. Yeah, gong show, but I survived... Back in the regular classroom the following block, I put on a microphone, much like a popstar (you know, the kind Britney Spears or Janet Jackson wears that wraps around the back of your neck and then rests on the side of your face, right beside your mouth), and stood in front of the class talking about myself (oh, we have the mic because there's a hearing impaired student in one of my classes - it's not just for fun, even though it is fun). Oh man, never put a mic on me, I just go nuts. I started by telling the students the basics about myself (i.e. where I'm from, why I'm there, what I've studied) and then had to open the floor for questions. Somehow I started talking about cheerleading, gymnastics and dancing and that progressed to dancing around the front of the classroom like Janet Jackson (if you've seen her music video for rhythm nation then you'll have some idea of what I did) and I taught them the "Let's Get Busy" cheer (where you slap and clap really quickly and throw your arms all over the place). The kids laughed and had a good time, so I guess it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Oh, did I mention that my SA left me totally alone during the fifteen or twenty minutes when I was standing up there? Yeah, that was a delight - apparently he wanted to see if I could hack it on my own (and I did).

For the next two blocks, I had a different class (which is my "actual" class - division 1). With them, we did two blocks of math, and I was able to walk around and help them out. Oh and don't worry, I stood in front of them and danced around like a fool too. My fifth block of the day was back with division two and I helped out with even more math (it was great to help because then i could kind of crouch down - walking around the class made me feel like fainting), and then the sixth block was Phys Ed with 120 students. Yes, that's right, 120. There were four teachers organizing this block and two student teachers (myself and Dominic) and we played Dodgeball with 120 kids. If you want to know the definition of Gong Show, this class was it. I, of course, felt like dying at the time, so I kept trying to find something to lean against or rest on. Dom was really confused why I wasn't joining in and winging balls at little kids heads, but I was surprised that I was even still alive. The drive home was just a mess, but I made it, and went straight to bed. What a strange first day of school.

This last week went a bit more smoothly. Yeah, I was still sick, but I was generally a little more coherent than the previous week. I didn't dance around with a mic on, but I did help out with four blocks of math (two blocks per class) and the 83 questions that my two classes of students were assigned. 83 math questions! Let's get serious here, I would NEVER do that many questions for homework (especially, the day before a test!). My fifth block was far more relaxing. We took division 2 out to the creek beside the school to watch the salmon try and swim upstream. I don't know if I've ever actually seen that in person before - it was amazing! The salmon just flip and flop and throw themselves all over the rocks and try and force their way up the creek. It's weird to watch them wiggle, but it was certainly refreshing to be outside. We followed that up with a few minutes of dodgeball in the mat room and that was just glorious! Then I was off to P.E. where I found that two of the regular teachers had left on a field trip so I ran an entire class of soccer on my own. That was fun, but running up and down the field in dress pants and heels was not quite what i thought it would be. But thankfully, I survived the day, and hopped in my car to drive home and take a nap. Yes, naps are my favourite things these days. If I'm ever going to kick this mono thing, i'm just going to have to keep napping. Not that I can really complain, but sleeping does get a little repetitive and monotonous when you do it as often as I have in the last few weeks. Oh well...

The gist of the story: I'm teaching and I absolutely love it, even when it's such a huge gong show. I can't wait for next week when I get to dress up for Halloween and then monitor a Halloween dance for two blocks. Maybe that gong show will top this one...