Student-Teaching @ Bethune

After 15 days (-1 sick day), 1 field trip (Healthy Schools Development Conference), 2 associate teachers (Mr. Scott & Ms. Villamin), 1 amazing English department, 6 classes (mixture of English and Drama, + a visit to Phys. Ed.), and a lot of Bethunian students (most of them Chinese), I have successfully completed my second practicum for my B.Ed.

I had a really good experience this time around, mainly because I was given work and got along with my associate teachers. It was different being in a public school since I grew up in a private, Christian school, but not different as I had thought. The students were so well-behaved and respectful. They listened in classes and never talked back. They were friendly and accepting and all things good. According to some teachers at Bethune, it's a good place to retire. What's lacking might be just a little bad to spice things up. I had a lot of opportunities to reflect about the teaching career, especially all those hours spent sitting in the back "observing."

Before I begin, I would love to introduce the classes I hung out with for the past 3 weeks:

1) Ms. Villamin's Period 5 Grade 11 English class
(good luck on your soliloquy presentations!) 2) Mr. Scott's Period 3 Grade 12 English class
(hopefully you got something out of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. i'm still trying to figure it out.)

3) Ms. Villamin's Period 1/2 Grade 9 English class

(great job on your biovisuals!)

4) Ms. Villamin's Period 5 Grade 9 English class

(lots of enthusiasm and eager volunteers!)

5) Mr. Scott's Period 3 Grade 11 Drama class

(i wish i could watch your final projects, they're going to be amazing!)

(watching drama presentations in the wonderfully safe drama room/best place to be in case of a school lockdown/note the poor baby on the floor)

6) Mr. Scott's Period 1/2 Grade 9 Drama students

(yes, i was quite shocked at how the baby was treated/they still split the class into a boys' side and a girls' side :) )

On my second last day, I took some time to journal during my prep period. This is what I wrote:

I will miss the students at Bethune. I will miss the teachers, especially those in the English Department.
I'm glad to have visited the various classrooms as I have in these past 3 weeks.
I've learned a lot more about school life as a teacher and what goes on behind
closed doors. I've seen how good students in a school can be--honest, honourable, kind to others, friendly. I've thought about how terrible marking can be and what the real goal of teaching is. From Mr. Ossea, I've learned teaching is about influence (even if it's cynically provided; his last words to me: May your lungs be inhabited by the dust of chalkboards). From Heather Fearon, I've learned teaching is about life. Teaching encompasses so many things! From Abbie, I've seen that teaching is about
developing character. From Rob, I've seen that teaching is about getting kids to
communicate and think. From Mrs. Ireland, I've seen the importance of being organized and stying on track with work.

Some students have needed my help; others haven't.
That's what being a student-teacher is about. You are a student at teaching. But it goes further than that. You also learn what it means to be a student--a student of life. All these observations make me shut up and see what's going on around me;
that each individual has a life, that each individual has a story. I'll never know everybody's story, but I can be a part of it (however small) and they can be a part of mine. I will soon be forgotten here, possibly even before exams are out; but these temporary moments of roaming through the main hallway, being mistaken for a student in staff washrooms, listening to the teachers' most interesting conversations, and most importantly, being in the classroom with the students... these have all played a role and taken up a scene or a chapter in the story of my own life.

Thank you for this memory, Bethune. Hopefully I'll return someday, but until then... all the best!

tired and confused

My few weeks back have been flying by fast and furiously. My practicum zaps the energy out of me (mainly due to early waking hours) and once again, I've filled my summer with more things than I can handle.

And now I am tired. and exhausted. and looking for a resting place. I thought I would have a chance to break this summer, but by the looks of it, it only gets worse. I'm going to Campus Challenge for the 2nd time this weekend and I'm going to be a small group leader. I feel as though I should be excited, but I'm feeling so lethargic I can't think straight.

And my practicum is making me rethink the teaching profession more and more. I really don't know what I should do with my life.

Enjoy the long holiday, my friends.

Shakespeare and 1 Samuel

Less than a month ago, I blogged about hating Shakespeare. Two out of three of the English classes I am in for my practicum are studying Shakespeare. I guess this bard is inevitably living among English classes and courses at least in my sphere of the world.

On a completely different note, I began reading through 1 Samuel to refresh my near non-existent knowledge of Biblical history. There have been certain bits of info that pop out that I are memorably enjoyable and I want to share them with you:

1 Samuel ...

1. 1:5, 8, 23 -> Elkanah loved his wife, Hannah, very, very much and allowed her to "Do what seems best to you." She was wise to take her son to "present him before the Lord, and he will live there always."
2. 1:5, 6, 19 -> The Lord opens and closes wombs. Now that I'm back in Toronto I listen to the radio again and hear lots about fertility clinics, healthy pregnancies, etc. Perhaps we forget that the Lord works beyond science and He has the power to restore fertility when we ask it of Him.
3. 2:1-10 -> There are so many beautiful songs that have come from Hannah's thanksgiving. The likes of these include, "There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God" and "It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth."
4. 3:7 "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him." He was just a boy, but God was already communicating with him through direct revelation. When do we consider ourselves as ones who know the Lord?
5. 3:19 "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up and he let none of his words fall to the ground." Is our responsibility not to let God's words fall to the ground? How can we live our lives so that God's Word does not go to waste?

Goodness, there's so much more, but I don't want these little gems to overwhelm. More later.

Missions

After a talking with my best friend about missions last night, a faint prick of nostalgia hit me as I realized this would be my first summer not going overseas for missions (or to Thailand) since the summer of 2005. I thought about all the people we had met, the friends we had made both with students and with the long-term missionaries. It's been a year but I still miss them and I still pray for them.

Asia Team

Thailand Trip #2 Team

Thailand Trip #1 Team



My two summers spent on overseas missions have really changed my life and who I am. A big part of it came from recovering from post-missions depression and regaining my pre-trip spiritual life while combining it with my missions experience. A lot of it came from tripping and stumbling during the actual mission trip and recovering, slowly but steadily, pushed back, but ready to come back stronger than before. My missions experiences have taken a long time to digest and each time I need a certain amount of time before I can understand the impact of my ministry and how God has changed my life through each trip.

What I've learned is that missions is a lifestyle. You can choose to be a missionary wherever you are. Each person is called to live a life of missions by following the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) and this can be lived out anywhere--whether at home, at school, on campus, in the workforce, EVERYWHERE! I have been so blessed by the two past summers spent doing God's ministry abroad, because I have learned that it doesn't take an expensive flight ticket and hot, sticky conditions to be a missionary. As long as I allow God to be revealed in my words, deeds, and attitudes, I can be a missionary for Him anywhere I go.


Do I regret not going on missions this summer? Not at all. I have a lot awaiting me this summer: my practicum, Across U-hub, BASIC Fellowship, Summer CCF, RHCCC Softball (Pebbles), watercolour classes, and a whole lot of meeting up with friends. But for now, I am contentedly on mission at home with my mom and brother, who are growing more interesting as they age.



Cheers to an exciting new summer!