My Friday

Interesting day... I had the opportunity to discuss legalized euthanasia, the budding Canadian landscape, Elizabethan theatre, and the hygiene habits of Englishmen in the 16th century. I'd say it was a pretty successful day, all in all.

Even though there were minor frustrations, I found that I left the class today with a little pep in my step and a need to tell someone about my day. It wasn't overly problematic with behaviour issues or attitude and my English kids seemed to enjoy the fact that I gave them an opportunity to insult me with a predeveloped list of Shakespearean terms that ranged from "toadstool" to "whore-monger". Even though my History classes aren't overly-exciting, I'm still managing to feel my way through the material, all the while dreaming of next term when I can actually incorporate some of the activities and new knowledge and methods of organizing myself that I haven't been able to include yet.

Before entering teaching, I anticipated that I would really dislike teaching poetry and Shakespeare. However, I've been pleasantly surprised... I'm entering the last few weeks of Part 1 of my practicum knowing that I really enjoy teaching these forms of language-art. I get right into writing my own haikus and telling people about how Shakespeare probably only bathed once a year (in May, of course). I also enjoy hearing students complain about poetry and Shakespeare, only to hear them change their tune by the end of class.

And I have a breakfast "meeting" with two of my sponsor teachers tomorrow... in other words, I'm hanging out with the boys for a hour or two in the morning. I still have a tonne of work to do in the next 2 days, but maybe things aren't too bad... hell, the weather's even warming up.

- T