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!