It was a sampling of selected works with a guest pianist. We have a small home room and with only 14 kids it was a fairly easy task to escort them via subway, to the show. However, that being said, I can see how this could be an arduous journey with many and often head counts. Thankfully today went well and no kids were lost and it was actually nice to interact with them outside of the classroom. It helps to remind them that I am just a person like them living life. I think it's important to level with kids often as at that age everything seems so much more life changing than a quiz that I have put together on my dining room table the night before.
With this being the start of our 3rd week, we need to realize that next week is our last week of this practicum and we will always think back at this experience for the good and the bad, but right now we are living it and we should enjoy it.
Hey Jason, I also enjoy spending time with the students outside of classtime. It's so fun to find out little things about them that you wouldn't otherwise get to know, and they get to connect with you as another human being and see you in a different way after that. I have a core grade 4 class and I'm with them all the time (I even accompany them to music, even though it is our prep time - we get to play the ukelele and sing - it is SO FUN! Definitely something I want to take up now :). I taught them how to finger knit in one of their art classes and many of them are addicted to it now - so whenever I'm free at lunch, we get together and finger knit. Word has spread and now there are many students I don't know from the other grades who come to finger knit with me in the library at lunch. It's fun, sweet, nice - I'm at a lovely school (Givins Shaw). Have a great last week of practicum!
ReplyDeleteMaryem
Hey Jason,
ReplyDeleteI was at that same concert I'm assuming...was it on the Tuesday? I'm not sure how you got your students to Roy Thompson, but we brought ours on the subway to get there. We had a few more students to deal with, but I there was also four adults with them, Patrick, his AT, a parent and I. I found the experience stressful overall and I didn't sleep too well the night before once I'd realized that our school was sending 250 6s and 7s on a subway and hoping for the best that nobody would get lost or die. Actually in the moment when we were guiding the students it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...but that was largely because we DIDN'T lose anybody. Constant head checks and the iron fist of Patrick's AT made everything run smooth.
I agree, there's a lot of ways to get bogged down in our placement and stress about things. We shouldn't add stress to ourselves, we need to just enjoy it while we're there. I know I'm going to miss those kids a lot more than I thought I was going to.