Sunday, November 04, 2007
at
5:08 p.m.
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 Now that I have students, it would be remiss of me not to comment on some of the more interesting things they hand in to me. Most of it is innocent mistakes, others are intended to elicit more interesting responses. Here are a few highlights from my grade 11 university class:
"If I had $500 right now, I would go downtown and treat myself with a satisfying meal that I hadn't eaten before. After that I would buy myself a pair of jeans, shoes, winter coats and many shirts that I would use for other days. If I had change, I would throw them to the bums and see what happened. That would be absolute amusement."
"If I had $500, I would first go to a store called "Mind Games" and buy electric shock gum. Then I would use the money that is left to throw an ice cream party for all my friends and family. Then I'd pull the electric shock gum prank on everyone who comes."
"If I was rich for a day, I would first buy a new computer as well as a laptop. Then I would buy hot melted fudge and throw it at the homeless. I'd then buy every Super Nintendo game in existence."
"...and the biggest thing I want to do is make my whole room Mickey Mouse. Posters, pictures, figures, bed sheet, carpet, etc. All Mickey Mouse."
"I have just found a flat $100 bill on the floor. What shall I do with it? I think I should take all my friends to the buffet. And then they are going to have to owe me, so each one of them will take me to a buffet which means that I pay once and get to go there ten times.
Or should I take my family out for dinner so they can say 'wow, he has grown up?'"
Some poetry examples:
Blue
I am writing with a blue pen in my hands
And I know I am not making any sense.
Mouse
It wanders around the house
Some call them mouse
But some call them rodents
It may be a pet, it may be trouble
Posted by
Parallel
Labels:
teaching
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
at
5:40 p.m.
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 I know that many people become teachers every year and most of them manage to survive and even thrive.
This does not help me right now because I start teaching a week from today and for some reason all the confidence I used to have has evaporated and I'm in full panic mode. I have forgotten how to teach, they will see that I'm a fraud, and then I'll be out of work.
Or I could be fine.
I KNOW I'll probably be fine. That doesn't do much to calm me down right now. I'm trying to plan out things, but not having even seen the English office, much less the school beyond the front entrance, is not helping.
People say the first year or two are the worst for teaching. I wish no one had really told me this because I'm already feeling under the gun. I'm petrified that I'm going to screw up teaching and give a shoddy education. I keep feeling like I'm going to show up, go into shock, and just not be able to do a thing. Kind of like a deer in headlights.
I wish there was some sort of tranquilizer here. I'm totally out of my depth.
Posted by
Parallel
Labels:
teaching
Friday, August 17, 2007
at
10:01 a.m.
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 The next two weeks is going to be a test of my patience, stamina, and my resolve. Yes, once again it's hiring time in the TDSB.
For those of you who weren't paying as close attention the first time around, I turned down the first job offer I had for teaching. It was for a year round alternative school, and while I'm sure it's an excellent place to teach, it just really wasn't what I had been working and building towards for so long.
So as I wait patiently, I'm doing my best to fill up my days. I've hit the stage where all of my time blends together and any ambition I might have to write the next great novel, or indeed even go for a walk, seems to fall by the wayside. I expect this to be a smaller problem next summer as I might have enough money to actually do things.
Today, I'll probably just watch television. Catherine and I just finished watching Freaks & Geeks, and during the day I watch The 4400, Eureka (not the cheesy Canadian kids show, but a sci-fi show out of the US), and season 3 of Deadwood. See? I'm productive. I think I might even go out of the apartment to the movie theater to watch Superbad.
Next week I'm hoping will be much different. I'd like to be hired for the school I most want to work at on Monday so I can actually start planning. The only stress factor at this point is the unknown, so I'd like to get that out of my way and then I can enjoy these last couple of weeks off.
If you're wondering about the image at the top, it's from an upcoming issue of Astonishing X-Men. I made it into a wallpaper which looks quite spiffy on a widescreen monitor.
By the by, Random Changes is being updated regularly these days and is all caught up on some story called World War Hulk.
Posted by
Parallel
Labels:
teaching
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
at
5:30 p.m.
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My feet hurt, my back is sore, I'm super-tired, and I'm in an amazing mood.
Knocked my lesson out of the park today, helped out at the school, and generally made myself into a good teacher today.
On top of that, I got home and there's a message from the Toronto District School Board and they want to set up an interview for me.
F***IN' AWESOME.
This is an extremely competitive board. More than 4000 applications are received and they interview around 900 for their eligible to hire list. 98% of the people who are interviewed make it onto the list and then they can be selected by individual high schools in the GTA for jobs at their schools. You MUST be on the list to get a job in Toronto.
This makes the slurpee I got on the way home all that much sweeter.
I called Scott, my associate teacher from Northview, who was just as excited and told me that he expected it to happen. He also mentioned that it looks like it's going to be a hiring year at Northview and that he's trying to pave the way for me to get a job there.
Now I can finally rest. I'm going to sleep well tonight!
Posted by
Parallel
Labels:
teaching
Monday, February 19, 2007
at
4:04 p.m.
|
 I just finished my first day of teaching at Riverdale. Not a bad school per se, but it just doesn't feel as good as Northview.
As for my AT, I can't tell you anything about her. She didn't show up. I got paired with a supply teacher who wasn't interested in teaching, so I taught my first full day today. I managed to memorize most of the students names. The librarians seemed to be impressed with me, so hopefully word gets back somehow.
My AT has six different courses that she teaches, alternating three each day. Two grade 9 applied, a grade 9 LD (lower than applied, which is in turn lower than academic), a grade 11 and a grade 12. I have no idea how much of these I'm going to teach.
This school is very strict and the English department doesn't seem overly friendly just yet. I can't wait to get back to Northview. I can honestly say that Northview is the kind of school I want to teach at with the kinds of kinds I want to teach.
All in all, this could have been a very stressful day, but for some reason it wasn't. I just went with the flow. Not once did I feel out of place at all. I had little to no anxiety before I went there (I even had a perfectly relaxed sleep last night) and still don't feel any. I wonder why that is? Perhaps because I've gotten the worst part of it out of my system and the school board should start calling people this week for interviews.
Hopefully.
Riverdale should be good, though. The kids are great (some of them are clones of kids at Northview) and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Then again, I also don't want to do another practicum. Just give me my certificate.
Posted by
Parallel
Labels:
teaching
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