I hold a scandalous truth: I love teaching. I do not necessarily enjoy being a teacher per se, mostly due to all of the obligatory paperwork and "professionalism" which it somehow requires. But I do enjoy teaching.
Despite my poking and prodding, my grade ten Bible class refused to be mustered into a topical argument. I threw vague definitions of Christianity at them, and lit flames of "Biblical Interpretation" under their seats only to receive near-comatose nods and glazed stares in return. Oddly enough, today I found that the symbolism of baptism pulled at a number of their strings and pushed a few of their buttons because I ended up with four young gentlemen discussing the authenticity of dunking and sprinkling ... get this ... after the bell had rung. Normally, the ring of the bell is similar to the Armageddon Trumpets as my students seemingly rapture out of their seats, yearning to find themselves in that Better Place. Alas, a heated debate between my students can light within me such ecstasy that I was numb, impervious in fact, to the strange antics of my grade sevens whom I had the following class. But even they must have either absorbed the air of Learning or stumbled upon an elixir of Epiphany without my knowledge because they were producing artwork rivaling that of the "older" grade nines.
It's amazing how those last two hours of work can just make (or break) your day.
4 comments:
I heard some very good things about you. Very very good things. My sister snooped around to find out how you were doing there, and found out some interesting facts. I'll tell you some other time.
hopefully i'll get the whole poop of that inside scoop which was snooped (so i'm in the loop), or i'm hooped.
Hey Ryan! Good to hear that teaching can be fun! This next week I am finally going to be in an actual school, instead of sitting in a class. Till the end of November, I will be in a school every Tuesday. (By mid-October, I will be assigned a sponsor teacher and a school that I will be working at the rest of the year.) After Christmas, I have a two-week practicum when I will be expected to teach a unit. And then at the end of March, I start a 13-week practicum where four of those weeks I am expected to be at 80% FTE. So far I am looking forward to it!
I have a question for you. In a couple of weeks is a province-wide Pro-D day. Should I go to a PE conference or a middle school conference? I am leaning towards the middle school one so that I can meet some people from other school districts where they do middle school, like Abbotsford and Chilliwack. I will only get exposure to the Coquitlam district through my practicums and I am not certain that I want to be teaching there next year.
i would suggest going to the one where you would find the most "connections". Connections are vital for landing that education job. through my last collaborative teacher i found myself at PD days where i was surrounded by art teachers (and divisional consultants) from numerous divisions around the city. Of course, God steered me to a school which had no connection to those meetings, but just the other week a divisional consultant phoned me informing me of a job opening in her division. answer to your question? go to the PD that would connect you to the most people that work at the places where you want to end up.
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