My Adventures in Education

So, I found this post, unpublished and forgotten, and felt it was worth posting, even though it has been a long while since I first wrote it. It has been a tough year for me - this is the first year where I have really felt that I've hit a wall, and that I need the summer to help recover.  This post was from November - I was taking two courses at the time (yes, I know that's crazy), and this one was referring to the online course I was taking about Indigenous history in Canada, called Stolen Lives. Certainly an important lesson, though difficult, and I believe it's worth the share. Here it is: The past week or so have felt so long and arduous. There has been so much to do, but it has felt like there aren't enough hours to complete it all. In the Stolen Lives course I am taking, we have been learning more about the Residential School system, and hearing and/or reading first hand accounts. It has been a very heavy week, as this material is difficult and carr...

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...

Every once in a while, we need to come down from our exciting, motivating high and realize that not everyone is ready for change, and that's okay! We all come from different lived experiences, with different motivations, and different goals, and it's impossible to make everyone happy all of the time. This is my latest lesson. I am beginning to realize that my excitement to learn new things and to challenge myself in areas that may not seem to connect traditionally to my particular courses are not always seen as useful or helpful by others. I get it. And while I want to advocate for teachers to have choice and control over their PD, I also need to accept that not everyone sees things in the same way. I always find that I have these conversations, and then I walk away, and five minutes later (or less) I wish  I had said something else! I wish I could be better at explaining things in the moment, so that these conversational regrets or what-ifs wouldn't happen. Life would ...

This past week or so has been crazy! It has been very uncomfortable for me, for all of the reasons that had me doubting this whole blogging journey to begin with - vulnerability and putting myself out there. It started when a fellow Halton colleague tweeted my blog out to the world - this scared me, and to be honest, it still scares me. I had only shared it out selectively to a few colleagues to get their input and to see if I was even any good at this whole blogging thing! I hadn't yet convinced myself that I was brave enough to put it out there for more people to read, especially if they knew me! Well, the cat's out of the bag - and many people have reached out to me about it. It amazes me how afraid I was of people reading these thoughts/reflections about teaching. I always try to do my best, but I also recognize that I am nowhere near perfect, and that I make mistakes just like any other human being. I think I was afraid that people would concentrate on the things tha...

Some days teaching feels amazing - the students are making the connections on their own, and you feel awesome  about the lesson or activity that you did that day. And then, there are days where you just aren't sure about anything - the students aren't engaged, you feel like you are pulling teeth to get an answer or discussion going, and it is just so forced. This week has been a mix of those extremes, and man is it exhausting! In my ESL C class, we started our book study unit. There are three different novels (each of a different level of difficulty). At first the students seemed excited to start reading a book all in English. As a class we read "The Paper Bag Princess" to learn the skills that they will then be using in their own novels - and they loved it! It was so easy for them - they created an awesome list of adjectives, they could find examples of direct and indirect characterization in the story, and they were so excited to take that knowledge and find tho...

This year has been spectacular in terms of Professional Development. I won't lie, I'm not one that enjoys the forced PD, so I attempt to find learning opportunities that interest me and that I feel are important to helping me develop. Well, this year I have been successful in finding PD opportunities that fit! Rather than relying on traditional PD, I reached out and got involved based on areas of need/want in my own teaching practice. One of those areas: Guided Reading. My interest in this area began a few years ago when teaching ESL C. For those that don't know what course that is, English as a Second Language courses are broken up into levels A-E, where A are beginning learners, and E are approaching grade level. I teach the students that are smack dab in the middle in terms of English acquisition. That being said, it's important to understand that ESL courses are credit-bearing courses, so as long as students can achieve 50% of the curriculum, they are abl...

08/April/18 I am sitting here at the Ontario Google Summit in Cambridge, Ontario, digesting all of the new technology apps/sites, etc. that I have learned so far this weekend. I am always amazed at how much I learn at the Google Summit, not because I think I know more than most, but because it seems like so much information is jammed into a short period of time. The facilitators are always phenomenal, and they really make you think about your teaching practices and the why  behind the choices you make in your classroom. I suppose that leads into blogging, and how I have arrived at where I am now. I have been toying with the idea of blogging for a little while now, but never really seem to get the courage to just do it. I tend to lean back on this idea of being shy - I still get nervous putting myself out there, especially in front of colleagues. Well, this morning I listened to a fellow educator explain how we just need to jump, to take the plunge and try something new. If ...