Busy. Busy. Busy.

Yep... it doesn't matter what country I'm in, I find myself being busy in some way. I've been really busy with school (lesson planning, teaching, running club, etc). I typically find myself really exhausted at the end of the day and I'm not even teaching a full load yet. For my observations/teaching, I actually float around to different classrooms throughout the day. It's as if I'm a floating teacher so atleast I'm getting the feel for what it's like to be a "traveling teacher" within the school. Everyday I am finding this experience to be so worthwhile. Typically I would find in a school in America that a teacher would teach maybe 2-3 Algebra I classes for 9th grade and maybe like 2 Algebra II classes for 10th/11th grade, just as an example. Here at my school, all of the Maths teachers teach different grade levels. There is one teacher who teaches like 2 or 3 Grade 9 classes, but the rest see all of the grades throughout the day. For instance, I am in a Grade 8, Grade 9, Grade 10, and Grade 11 class. I like the variety, although I am busy having to write lesson plans for teach Grade level since none overlap (i.e. I'm not teaching two Grade 8 classes and can use the same materials for each... catch my drift?) So I really think it's great that I'm getting experience with all of the different Grade levels. It's different types of Maths which actually forces me to have to relearn some things, especially since I have to teach it. I actually am finding that as a bit of a challenge. Some of this Maths material I haven't really looked at since high school so I'm trying to relearn it.

This week (on Wednesday), I started teaching the Grade 10s. I was actually REALLY nervous to teach this class because the teacher has told me they are the top set of the Grade 10s and the cooperating teacher in the class has been teaching for 45 years. So, needless to say, I was a bit intimidated. I'm teaching them about length, area, and volume. On Wednesday, I taught them about perimeter and area of squares and rectangles which led us into talking about proportions and ratios. The lesson wasn't too bad, but I definitely did a lot of reflection after it. There were several factors that made me nervous (as I mentioned earlier) and I wasn't sure what to expect. I suppose I didn't plan as well as I should have and really assumed too much about the class. Actually during the lesson, I asked the cooperating teacher where I was going wrong and he said, "No no, everything is fine. Give them some exercises to try." So, I did just that and I had made a worksheet for them to take home for homework. After the lesson, he sympathetized with me and told me not to worry because the text book (which I was deriving some examples from) really wasn't that great. He told me it's a pity that a book could be so awful. Lesson learned... seek other resources as well. Anyway, the girls were asking me all sorts of questions that I tried to answer as best as possible and felt like I was really just confusing them even more. Oy. But, that was fine as well because my cooperating teacher again said not to worry and that some of the girls were asking me pointless questions (i.e. How would this look on a test?)... Ay! I don't know! I haven't written any tests. But, nonetheless, I tried to answer as best as possible. Overall it really wasn't that bad and mostly I was nervous because I know I don't have that much experience teaching length, area, and volume (like my cooperating teacher), but that's all part of the experience. I was really happy that at no point he never chimed in to say, "well, let's look at it like this." He let me handle the entire class and it forced me to answer questions, to teach, to explain, etc. All of the teachers here have been that way and I am so thankful for that. I really hope I remember later down the road how good it felt to have that freedom as a student teacher and I hope I can do the same for another student teacher someday.

Later during the day, in the staff room, I was sitting next to the Grade 10 teacher and I asked him why he decided to become a teacher. He had told me that he was always interested in helping others (i.e. coaching). He always had an interest in teaching in some way. So, he thought he would give teaching a try. He turned 23 his first year of teaching. He taught for 20 years. After 20 years, he wanted to go into administration so he became a principal at one school for 8 years and 12 years at another school. After that, he decided he missed teaching and went back into teaching Maths and that's where he's been ever since (at my school). The man will be 68 years old next month and I have really noticed he has this passion for teaching. He's been such a great mentor teacher for me to observe. The girls love him. My favorite quote by him from our conversation about why he teaches was, "Well, really, I can't think of a better way to spend my day."

I'm going to end on that note because it really just left me smiling. Teaching is exactly what I'm supposed to do and all I can say to his comment is Amen. :)