Having lived my whole life in a small town in Canada I decided I would study abroad in Scotland and get my Post Graduate Certificate in Education. During all of my teaching placements I learned a little about classroom management, lesson planning and assessment. This I expected. I did not expect that I would be taught a thing or two about language!
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After finishing one of my first maths lessons in a P6/7 class, I assigned seat work for the students to complete. While walking around the class I was approached by one of the male students. He seemed a little shy and would not look me in the eye. "Miss," he said, "I have been told to try to be more prepared. I was wondering if you had a rubber I could borrow?" I stood thinking about how to respond to this boy when he then said, "I really don't want to make a mistake with you."
"Do you think this is an appropriate thing to ask a teacher?" I replied. It was at this moment when the classroom teacher walked by and passed him an eraser.
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My first placement was in a nursery class. Those little munchkins are so adorable and you just never know what they will say or do!
It was a chilly fall morning when I welcomed the little ones in for the day. Each of them wanted to tell me a story as they entered. "Miss, I got a cut on my finger last night.", "Miss, today is my birthday and I need to go to the toilet." Sometimes I think that Jack Handy got his random thoughts from nursery aged kids.
It was the last little boy who walked through the door that taught me to think before I respond to anything. "Miss, I got new pants last night!" I nodded and smiled. "Would you like to see them, Miss?" Of course I responded positively and acted very excited to see them. He showed them to me. Now I know that in Scotland pants are called trousers and underwear are called pants.
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Ask a teacher what they love about teaching and you may be told a story about when a student who struggles finally makes a breakthrough and finds success and pride in their accomplishments. That is a great feeling! Well, at least until you tell that student where to stick their work!
During my third placement in a P3/4 classroom, I worked very closely with a young girl on her writing. The teacher had told me that she needed a lot of assistance with her writing assignments and she was unlikely to complete most tasks. We had set up small attainable goals and her quality and quantity of work began to improve.
One morning she was given a task that should have seemed a little daunting for her. I watched her struggle but she persevered and completed it to the best of her ability. From across the room I saw her face relax and then a smile spread across her face. I was proud of her and more importantly, she was proud of herself. She brought her work to me. I looked it over and smiled, "You did a great job on this! Go stick it in the bin and then you can get your lunch." Her smile was replaced with a look of confusion. I kept smiling and nodding to go ahead. She turned and began to walk toward the door slowly, turning to look back at me twice. Finally, she reached the door where there was a table with a plastic bin where work was submitted. Instead of placing her work in there she threw it in the garbage. Apparently, a garbage pail is called a bin!
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