Finding my place

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The first week of orientation is over and now we have two more weeks of prep and a couple meetings. School starts September 5th. It has been quite the adventure so far!
The first piece of this crazy adventure – I showed up to the first staff meeting on Monday and they had no idea who I was. No one knew I was coming at all. Excellent. My VP was at least impressed that I had found out where to go and when, and had even showed up in Belize without confirmation from the school. Thing is, I THOUGHT I had confirmation haha! Turns out the principal who confirmed my placement is in fact on vacation until December and he did not pass on my info to the acting principal and didn’t even mention it to anyone including the vps.

Whether they knew I was coming or not, I was here now, so they were very welcoming and said they would find me a spot. I felt bad because I’m sure it’s already enough work to be an acting principal for the first 3 months of school, and here it seems they only get all the details sorted these last couple weeks. They had just assigned teachers to grades, were discussing the budget for the year, and coming up with plans. I felt pretty intrusive but the admin was nice about it and welcomed me to the school.

At first I was placed with Infant I (Kindergarten). I went to the next orientation day with that information, but again, when I introduced myself to my teacher mentor, she had no idea what was happening. So back to the principal I went, to ask if this was still the case. And they were now considering placing me with older students. They asked what I preferred and I said I do enjoy teaching the older students more than the young young ones, but that I was flexible. Again, I didn’t want to be a huge burden, since they had apparently just found out they had to find a place for this Canadian Intern.
I got an email the next day informing me I would be placed with Standard III (Grade 4). Ok – so off to the middle/upper division orientation I go. This time, my teacher mentor is in fact on sick leave until the last few days before school. Alright! But at least this time I am with the right group, so I got to talk to the other Standard III teachers, who seem very nice, and got to discuss the curriculum and plans, etc.

So it seems to be on track now, I’m happy with my placement and anxious to talk to my teacher mentor to start figuring out how I will fit into the schedule and whatnot. Will keep you all posted on how it goes with Standard III!

Ah – and finally : my favourite moment so far. What irony… Ok - those of you know me know math, especially multiplication, is probably the least of my strengths in skills. When I taught grade 5, I used to have to practice as much as the students, and would have to check my answers secretly against those of the kids who got it right all the time… not my proudest moment, but whatever! So we’re in our class groups, and one of the teachers says, we need to practice times tables more often, and asking me how we practice them in Canada, all I could say was : Mad Minutes. Are you joking?! Mad minutes is what I have contributed so far to this school. Mad minutes were the bane of my elementary school existence. They stressed me out so much I used to dread math class! They work but my goodness I never thought I would see the day when I would suggest Mad Minutes. This is the wisdom I have brought with me from Canada. I’m sorry PG students…

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