I’m nearly there, but am at the point where I just want it to end.
My interim report was better than I thought (based on the odd feedback I was getting – no positive, just Stuff To Work On). Quiet good really, all things considered (like trying to interpret man-speak for so many things). Apparently I’m not providing interesting enough experiences … but every time I try something, it gets boy-ified (and I’m teaching at a girl’s school) by the teacher.
I try to demonstrate concepts using objects the girls have seen before and have some idea about ….
Like showing how a ball rolling down a slope will accelerate due to the force of gravity which was bastardised to involve toy cars and ticker-timers (WTF are they you say? so did most of the girls which meant that they kinda missed the concept of acceleration).
Like – Kinetic energy to sound energy – I had a lovely little music box where you turn the key, see the spring tighten inside, then unwind and turn the little drum with raised lumps which brush against the tines and then hear a little tune (look in a music box and you’ll see what I mean). Noooo much easier to demonstrate a transformation to sound energy using a radio That You Can’t See The Workings Of. Apparently.
meh.
Other teachers at the school have been great. I got to do a day of supply teaching (unpaid and being observed by the paid supply teachers / other teachers from within the school) and got loads of great feedback. At least this gave me the confidence that I *am* “getting it…. which to be fair, was fairly clear on my report but after 3 weeks of “your board writing skills need to be clearer / neater/ faster/ more / less” and “no students may ever make any noise whatsoever when you are teaching. It’s OK for them to do this when I am teaching though as I do not observe this”. Ok, he didn’t say that last bit but it’s true …
…
and Dad has been pretty crook. Not sure why, but he can’t seem to get his legs working properly. He’s having another MRI for his acoustic neuroma on Wednesday and they’ll check to see if he’s had a small stroke at the same time. BUT given that if hes well rested, he can walk OK, to me it seems to variable to be a stroke. I suspect he may have some sort of lingering effects from the pneumonia in June.
…
well, its been another barrel of laughs from me, but I’m feeling OK really, despite the tone of this post.
I mean less than 3 weeks to go now and I’ll be DONE. I just need to get through the next few weeks…..
If I wasn’t being graded on this whole teaching prac thing, I’d be enjoying myself immensely.
But as I’m being graded, I’m a nervous wreck.
Mind you, my science supervisor has said that in order to fail at this point, I’d have to have a catastropic failure of safety in the lab or fail to get the students to pay attention. He said he’s down to picking on minute things I can improve on …. already. I’m taking this as a good sign, but trying to make sure my bases are covered.
As for maths though … I’ve got the support class. Its surprising just how much support they need. For example, I had a pictrue on the board (which they also had in front of them), pointed to the point that was highest on the page (we were looking at a line graph) and asked the girls to do the same. Quite a few of them had trouble locating the highest point.
I *think* I got through to them on Friday … but they’ll have forgotten this by the next time I see them.
I have to negotiate 6 weeks of mind reading what my supervisor wants teaching, hoping I pass, and then I will be officially let loose on the minds of 8-15 year old Australians and paid for the privilege.
I’ve written a plan to cover forces and energy for year 8 science thats OK – it doesn’t rock, but its to their plan, and I’ve half written a maths unit on linear equations and financial decisions (not that they are particularly well related, more that this is what’s left to cover before the exam).
So this blog will be quieter than usual I expect (or alternatively I could pour out my angst here – who knows).
But I’ll be reading your blogs and wishing good things for all of you. Especially you and you ’cause I know you have a lot of stuff going on right now.
You know those days when you’re all “my life is soooo sucky right now” and feeling a bit sooky?
I was having one of those days yesterday (assignments due, crap day at school, snot pouring from my nose, kids continutally fighting or making *that* noise that goes through you like a dose of salt, sister-in-laws coming close to having a Will and their written request for more blood money manually shoved up their ar$es … you know the drill).
Then reality hit me with a thud when I heard that the fourteen year old daughter of one of the teachers at my daughter’s school had succumbed to her 11 week battle with adult leukemia and died. She was a gorgeous, lovely, bright, friendly kid. She went into hospital with swine-flu-like symptoms in June and walked out with a diagnosis of adult leukemia, suffered chemotherapy, a fungal infection which took away her power of speech and ultimately a stroke which killed her.
I found out she had died at morning tea and then had to go and teach a class of fourteen year old girls.
