Today was much less intense than the previous two days. But I did get to see some of the background work that goes into planning materials and lessons. So, here was my day. My semi-short day :-)
My roomie woke up at 6:30 to an alarm. I had no idea she was awake (totally oblivious to the whole world) until she poked me at 7 and told me it was time to get up for breakfast. Groaning, I got up and took a shower. Then headed down to breakfast. Quickly ate a croissant and left for school. I got there as the bell rang and headed to the Geography Base because that's where I was told to be. So I went. There was no one there when I arrived, so I put my stuff down, and walked down the hall, down the stairs, and found no one. So I went back to the base and waited because I figured my co-op teacher would know where to find me. After about 5 minutes, he walked in the door and took me downstairs to Aileen's classroom where she was preparing her History unit on America. She started sorting papers and we talked about teaching. I asked her questions about schools in Scotland in general and ones about Larbert. She showed me a couple of things on the computer, like the student's portfolio's. Every student has one - and it's a WONDERFUL idea! Every teacher can see when a student was called out and what for, every homework assignment they've missed turning in, things like that. It's great. After that, Fiona, a first-year teacher (the baby of the department) came in holding The Pianist. Amazing movie! But I'm a history nerd, so I would think so, of course. She told me to come watch it with her in her S1 class (7th grade), so I did. Mostly to observe the students at that age to see how they acted during a movie. They were good for the most part... after about 15 minutes into the movie. After that, they were really good. And the movie was fantab. Awesome stuff! After that class, we went to tea and I talked politics with the history teachers there. New experience for me! But they seemed to respect my opinion and I appreciated that.
After tea, I went back to Aileen's room with Fiona, Craig, and Leslie (I don't know ANY of their last names) and we had a staff meeting about who was going to teach what and when during the next Timetable year. It was really confusing for me because I have NO idea how their timetable works or what all the letters and numbers mean on the schedule. Plus they talk really fast and I was having a hard time trying to keep up. But I got most of it... the words anyway. Not that I actually comprehended what went on or anything since, again, I have no idea how their school is set up (they've not explained it to me yet). After that, I went with Fiona again and watched her as she gave a group of S1's a completion assignment. They had been learning about what it was like living in Scotland from 1959-1969 and had just finished a unit on the hippies. Their assignment? They had to take magazines, cut out someone famous, and hippi-tize them. It was awesome! And because it was the last day of school, it was just something to keep them busy until the end of the day. I met one of the kids. Apparently he was a trouble-maker, but was being very good during that assignment. I would never have guessed it. He was sweet.
At 12:25, I went to lunch and Kurt and I waited for Mr. Wood to get there to pick us up. When we got back to school, we had about an hour before class because Aubrey was on a field trip and didn't get back until almost 3. We had class at 3:30 and it was a really good class. Mr. Wood shared stories of students past, we had good cries (we're all excited about teaching!), and good discussions. Then we had dinner and cake (it's Danielle's birthday and Mr. Wood's Anniversary) and some of the group went up to Falkirk. Kurt and I didn't go. He went walking and I was going to start my homework assignment. As of right now, I still haven't started... it's about 11:20 p.m. Go me and my wonderful procrastination techniques! We did a bible study and then had more cake and ICE CREAM, compliments of Adam and Melanie from the Cumbernauld CofC. They're awesome!
So, that was my day. Not much of one. I observed, yes, but there wasn't much to see. I have noticed that teachers like to yell at their students because they think it helps. I know it doesn't... *sigh* Oh well. Tomorrow, I get to play the Wii for activities day. Yay! Maybe I can wear jeans to school... cause I don't want to box and bowl in dress shoes. I would break something... like my NECK! Tomorrow should be fun. I will fill everyone in on the occurances of the day tomorrow.
Until then, bedtime/paper time.
Cheers, everyone!
Aimee
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