My Adventures in Education

It is hard to believe that I am sitting here, and it is already November! Midterms are fast approaching (due next week), my AQ course is quickly progressing, and life is crazy! This post is going to be all over the map - much like my brain these days! I am doing so many different things right now, so, as the title implies, madness is a great descriptor for my brain and my life these days. As a new teacher, I never really appreciated the chaos of the profession, particularly if you choose to get involved in various committees or groups within the school/Board. I've always been someone who loves to be busy, so I welcome this chaos with open arms. That being said, if you want to get involved in multiple projects, etc. make sure you have a really good calendar system! I struggle with an electronic calendar (which is quite humorous when you consider my passion for technology) versus a paper calendar. I didn't even bother purchasing a paper calendar this year, thinking I would be...

  A big part of my approach to teaching is my own learning. I feel like it's important to always question my methods and to look for different ways to improve myself as an educator, as well as the learning experiences for my students. Today I begin a new learning adventure with the Teaching English Language Learners, Part 2 Additional Qualification course. My goal is to complete my Specialist this year, so I thought that this was a great start. Also, taking this AQ would help with my "mourning the loss" of my ESL courses (see previous post here for more info), so really, it has a double purpose in my professional life. As I was navigating the D2L (course site) program, the instructor suggested a journal or a blog to help document and reflect on my learning to help make it more long-lasting and meaningful. Right away, I figured that this was the perfect outlet - I'm struggling still with my new teaching assignment, so this way, I can blog in a purposeful and help...

It has been a while since my last post, so I feel like it's time to get back to it! This year has been a difficult start up, which is partly why I haven't written a blog post as of yet. I keep starting a post, and then changing my mind as to whether or not I should post it, and now I'm in the third week of school and have decided I just need to get back to writing - even if it's hard. The reason for the difficulty in posting: I am an ESL teacher who also teaches Spanish, and after a week of classes I lost all of my ESL classes and my schedule was changed to entirely Spanish. I am also a Spanish teacher, but ESL is where I really identify myself, and it is where I have been doing a lot of professional learning and growing. It is the area where I have felt passionately about making myself better, and helping my students to acquire language in a safe environment where they can feel comfortable making mistakes; and in an environment where we can build our own little co...

I was on Twitter the other day and came across a post from @VoicEdCanada about a Summer book study with fellow educators. The book: "Seven Fallen Feathers" by Tanya Talaga. I have always been interested and perplexed by Canadian/Indigenous history, and thought it would be a good fit. Plus, it's  the summer, and I get bored out of my mind, so it's a perfect way to break up the boredom, while also reading about an area of Canadian history that we often gloss over. I quickly ordered my copy of the book from Amazon, and awaited its arrival. Not even 48 hours later, it arrived on my doorstop, and I quickly opened it up and took in the cover. Immediately I knew I was in for an important, but emotionally heavy read. I've always been an empathetic or sensitive person. Things affect me whether I want them to or not. My first teaching practicum placement was with an amazing educator, whose name I won't share here since I haven't cleared it with him. He open...

As the title suggests, yesterday was the last day of class. With it comes a whole range of emotions. If you are a teacher, you likely know exactly what I'm talking about! If you are a teacher candidate, you'll know soon enough. Exhaustion has begun to set in - my brain knows that it's almost the summer break, so I have been hitting the snooze button more and I feel like I can't think/plan anymore! But end of year is also a little sad. I've really enjoyed my classes and the students that I have taught, so it's hard to say goodbye. Some goodbyes in my ESL class are permanent, as they are leaving for different schools or moving to different cities. This always seems to make it harder. ESL teachers are, at most times, more than just teachers. We are the first Canadian experience for many of our students, and they often come to us with questions about Canadian society, homestay/guardian issues, questions about classes and how schools work here, course selection ...

It has been a while since I last posted. Things have been very busy as the school year wraps up. For some reason June always seems to come out of nowhere, and things feel rushed and chaotic. It didn't help that my family and I chose to buy a house and have a closing date in the final month of school, but alas, life happens.  I always seem to find June a difficult month. I'm always questioning how I taught certain units, or whether or not the expectations that I had for a particular evaluation were fair. It's tough to see your students struggling without wondering if you could have done something differently. They aren't all struggling, or else it would be really clear, but I often think that if I could design the course in such a way that everyone could learn more easily, perhaps I could help the weaker ones, which still supports the strong students as well. The question always comes down to 'how.' The 'how' seems impossible. Every year, my student...