2 Weeks in and Getting Comfortable

Now that I've been here for 2 weeks (oh my goodness! it's going so fast!!) I'm starting to form some routines and am feeling comfortable here.

The Monchy schoolyard has a beautiful tree with pink flowers.

I usually wake up around 6:30 am, get ready for the day and then catch my two buses to Monchy. I get to school around 8:15 and spend some time with the students playing or going over lesson plans for the day and then school starts around 9:00.

At Monchy the school day starts with an all school assembly where the students pray and a different teacher gives a short talk about important events and/or announcements for that day. Then Grade 6 has English for about an hour and a half. After the first class of the day the school has a break that lasts about half an hour where students usually run around and play for a bit and grab a snack. After morning break Grade 6 has Maths (yes, they call it maths or mathematics) and then another hour break for lunch. After lunch the students have 2 different classes. The subjects of these classes change depending on the day of the week but include Health Science, Social Studies, General Science, Music, Study Skills, P.E., French, and Arts and Crafts.

This week I started teaching. The first subjects I've taken over are English and Health Science. I had a lot of fun planning for this week, although Health Science was a challenge (I haven't study Health since I was in middle school myself).

There is a carpet of pink petals under the tree that the students love to play in.

Thursday and Friday of this week the other Grade 6 teachers were at a conference all day... I didn't know this until Thursday morning, so I was tasked with taking over all 4 classes for both days with no preparation. It was scary for a bit, and I was nervous about teaching the subjects I wasn't prepared for (especially Math) but everything worked out well.

They weren't the best lessons I've ever taught but I got though each day and each subject without too much trouble. The biggest problem was Friday afternoon; the students had a lot of energy and were obviously excited for the weekend and that translated into poor behavior from most of them. There was disrespect for me and for their classmates and I felt like I was losing control of the classroom. I ended up having to put my strict teacher face on. I had the class write a 3 paragraph essay about how they should act in class, how they should treat their classmates, and why they had trouble doing those things that day (shout out to Crupi, totally stole your idea). The class seemed very receptive and apologized to me profusely. Hopefully they will do better on Monday... I'm pretty sure they will.