All I have to say is, 'Thank GOD it's almost over!"
For those of you in the program, chances are you'll know what I'm talking about; but for those who have been blessed with other institutions/programs/jobs...this is a day in the life of a soon-to-be teacher...the pity party can commence now.
The day starts usually around 8:30am with a strong cup of tea and an intense small-group conversation about how it's going to be yet another ridiculous day. Come to think of it...maybe I should try putting vodka in tea, it may make the day a little bit more bearable...I’ll let you know how it goes. Anyways, the “curriculum classes” last for 2.5 hours (which just so happens to be 2 hours too long on the best of days). During that time, we are “educated” about things that we can do to help kids learn, lesson ideas, and all that teacher-y stuff. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? It would maybe be somewhat tolerable if the professors didn’t have such a Utopian-like view of what our future classrooms will look like.
Some of the activities we do in say, science, are fantastic! Truly...they’re fun, hands-on, exciting...but sometimes completely inappropriate for today’s classroom. Are you REALLY going to give students in grades K-6 a saw, drill, and a hot glue gun to put together a catapult? Yeah, I didn’t think so, either. Great ideas in theory often do not work in practice...the instructors don’t seem to get that. On a sidenote...I would even be scared to give a grade 8 a saw and/or drill for fear of my life. They could come at me with it and “technically” I can’t touch them. I guess I’d better get that cardio up to outrun them in preparation. In another class (just so happens to be my focus and the best class I have, although completely irrelevant to primary students) I made a paddle/oar from a plank of wood. Again, sweet project...but why am I spending $6000+ dollars to learn how to make a paddle? Will it create units for me? Or will it teach me how to deal with exceptionalities? Rant over.
If we are lucky enough to have a faculty-wide hated course, we would endure things such as being assigned to do group work with complete strangers. Let me elaborate on this a little bit. Looking back, it is rather humorous how disorganized the instructor was. In a class of 375 students, the instructor read out last names in groups of three (i.e. Harrison, Arsenault, Cleary). Then, we were sent out into the hall, or “Student Street”, to meet with our stranger group members, exchange emails, and complete a group assignment from hell. Where the disorganization came from was when they called out the names so quick that either a) you didn’t hear your group member’s names or, b) you got out to Student Street to find 300 other confused, lost students trying to find their group members. It was CHAOS if I’ve ever seen it. Way.to.go.Queen’s. That caused a lot of unnecessary work for the TAs who probably received 200 emails from lost souls.
Either way, teacher’s college is the most ridiculous, albeit easy, time of my life. I wish practicum/placement was the entire 8 months...at least I learn something there and get to interact with my future career. I only have one more week at Queen’s before I leave on a two month placement block...bring on the celebrations!!!
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