Today was not a bad day, much better than yesterday I think. Maybe got off on the wrong foot but now I'm slowly slowly slowly getting into the swing of things. So during period one we had grade 9 English and after taking up homework questions and reading the novel, I was able to help the students with their summative in class essays. In particular, I helped this one girl who honestly reeked of smoke but I just knew that if I didn't help her with her essay, she wouldn't do it. I basically guided her through her entire essay structure and I could tell that she didn't regularly attend class and might be struggling because of her lack of understanding of what was going on. Nonetheless I tried to help her gain traction for her summative and have a general idea of what to do. I also helped this other student who I later learned was one of the weaker students in the class which was really nice actually. After that was a grade 10 class and it was similar format, answer questions then read the novel. Finally it was lunch time and it was a little awkward once again in the staff room because they talk about subjects that I cannot contribute to, however, I left early to talk with my last year teachers which I found really enjoyable. I kind of felt like crying for some reason when they asked me how everything was, maybe because I know that deep down I didn't really enjoy my first day and wasn't very optimistic about this placement compared to the great experience I had last year.
Also, with Brandon being so far away on exchange and for such a long period of time, it made me reflect that we're almost where we were at exactly one year ago. After lunch we had prep, where I just worked on my lesson plan about "coming of age." I figured out an activity and a general idea of what to present but nothing totally confirmed yet. After that was last period which was grade 9 again which followed a similar format of reading the novel and answering questions, this time I was able to help a lot more students with their summative assignment because well most students seemed very independent but there were the odd few who finally needed my help! I helped this girl who seemed like she struggled with English and also there was this guy who thought he was all that even though his work was average. He was incredibly confident in his ability and I knew that that smart mouth of his would get into trouble one day and sure enough it did when he told me that his coaches did not like him. It takes a lot of patience and understanding with these students because you never know what kind of background everyone comes from so you need to try your best to be a positive example in the 75 minutes you see them each day. I think that I will work on changing my attitude towards my placement and although it isn't giving me the experience I desire, I can create a better experience through changing my outlook and relying on God more rather than others.
Until next time!
Suzy
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