Contract renewed!

Morinville High School has renewed my contract for another year! I will be teaching drama 9, drama 10, drama 20/30, English 10-2, K&E LA and K&E English. I'm very excited to be back next year, but for now, I'm focusing on SUMMER! I'll be spending a week counseling at Bethel Bible Camp and then a week at Yellowstone with my family. After that I have about 4 weeks of doing whatever I want, and then counselling at Meadowlodge. Then its back to school. The summer is going to fly by. I will do some planning for the new year, but I'm determined to enjoy my first summer off in a long time! Just thought you might all want to know what I was doing next year.

Well, my blog just proves how terrible I am at journal writing. It seems I never have the time or will to do these sorts of things. In my heart I always wanted to write in a journal. I have bought plenty over the years trying to convince myself I could do it. But, the truth is, I suck at journal writing; about as much as I suck at being a pen pal.
So, that being said, here is my update. I have 3 days of school left and I'm feeling very sad. I'm learning to deal with the feeling of "being left behind." My grade 12 students, who I love, are leaving me. They are graduating into a world of new beginnings. And this will always happen to me. My grade 12's will always leave me. This is good, I wouldn't want them to stay, but it still makes me sad. I imagine, its a smidgen of what a parent feels when a child leaves home. Other teachers have told me that it gets easier as you go on-that you don't grow as attatched or you just get hardened to it. But I don't want to be that type of teacher. The day I stop feeling sad to see kids go is the day I quit teaching.
3 more days. Then the kids will be off for summer and I will wait around, wondering who I will lose, for there are some that I will lose and never see again. And that is more sad than saying goodbye to my grade 12s. My heart breaks for some of my grade 9 students, that live with unspeakable tragedy. At least I might have 3 more years with them to instill in them some sort of self confidence, self love and self motivation. I will always lose some, but perhaps I can help to save some as well? Time will tell I suppose.
I did get the best compliment though. One of my grade 12 students told me that she wants to become a teacher, and that I had influenced her decision. What better compliment can a teacher ever get?
The joys and sorrows of teaching. The ups and downs of teaching. The loses and wins of teaching. The highs and lows of teaching. The laughter and tears of teaching. These opposites that suit me so well (since I've always said that I am the complete opposite of myself, and those that know me know this to be true). These opposites is what makes me love my profession. I hate to say profession, becuase as a teacher, it really consumes a lot of your life, and you really begin to live it. Its hard to imagine not doing this. I imagine its what my Dad feels about farming. He plants his seeds and puts his blood into the land, and I feel thats what I really do for my students. You plant the seeds, watch them grow, through on some fertilizer and pesticides, and hope you will be around to harvest.
3 more days. Sigh.

Aaahh. The joys of spring break

I have just enjoyed a week off of school, that's right, the wonderful days of spring break. I cleaned my house (somewhat) did some lesson plans (somewhat) went to the farm for a couple days, spent today in the city with my Mom and Grandmas and now we are already at the weekend. And I must admit, I didn't get close to getting everything I wanted to get done. It seems I had a very busy week doing nothing that I was planning to do. Sigh. Story of my life. I am looking forward to getting back the grind. I mean, too much time off and I start going a little crazy, but a week was perfect. Well...almost perfect, I guess I could have used a couple more days, but chances are, I wouldn't have used them very wisely either. I guess that's just the way my life goes. It all really does fly by much to fast. I've just realised that I really have only 2 and a half months left and then it will be summer holidays for me. And I have so much to do in those two months. I wish I could just pull the reins of life and slow down a bit, but I must admit...it is a great ride!

Magnito Says....

So like I saw the whole thing and thats not how it went down at all man. I was like way more involved ok. As usual I had jumped off the kitchen counter into Momsy's school bag and crapped everywhere man it was... a good day to say the least I mean there was like crap everywhere and I like ate some really good cookies too from gramsy. They were like so good but I digress. So you know I'm like bouncing around in this stupid little school bag and am getting a little P.O.ed I mean the crap is like flying everywhere at me and its just really gross. So I like rip open the black teeth that holds the bag together and am about to give Momsy a little nip on the ear lob when she slams on the breaks. Hokus junk batman I went like flying like into this big freakin kids hair man and he like started freakin out or something so I like quickly ninja'd him in the face a lot and he like hit 3 people or something. It was really cool, I mean I felt I was making a difference like Donatello, or squirmy. I am so cool. I probably like ninja'd them all for an hour or maybe 3 and at the end they were all so tired they were just sitting on the floor crying a little bit. Momsy sat down beside them so I just backflipped back into the bag of crap and went home. Pretty typical day for me really.

The Fist fight

I had a pretty exciting day. I had drama 9 first thing and they were howling at the moon. They were a bunch of crazies and the class left me feeling upset and disapointed. Of course my drama 20/30's picked me right up so I continued on in determination. I then had ISC, and only had 3 students in it. My regular, and two students that were misbehaving in class so they were sent to ISC. One of them I used to teach english to and the other is in my drama 9 class. Well, for some reason my regular said a comment to drama 9 about his mom and before I knew it, drama 9 had landed two punches WHAM BAM on my regular and he was on the floor. He was just getting up as I got in between them. I seperated and paused a moment to breath. What could I possibly do here? I could send them to the office, but it might just encourage them, and I hate doing that becuase that's what everybody does to them. So, I went to my regular and just sat beside him, looking at him. Eventually he felt guilty and said sorry and that it would never happen again. I accepted his apology and went on to drama 9. It took him a little longer, but he also apologized. The class went on to be the most productive and quiet class ever! Of course if it happens again, I'll have to send them to the office, but hopefully that will never happen again becuase now they are on my side. Sugar can go a long way with these kids. Its amazing the difference it makes when they realise someone cares for them. They are instantly on your side for life. So far I have been able to win over all my adversaries and some of them have turned out to be the biggest asset in my class! Its kind of sad how the littlest amount of love and care changes these students. But that's why I'm a teacher I suppose. And that was my first fist fight to break up. All the other teachers thought it was absolutly hilarious. Good support system! :)

Some changes

I've had some things change in my teaching schedule. Becuase of some extra funding we got, we were able to hire a new K&E teacher. (K&E are core subjects that are taught below 10 and 13 levels. It is also offered to grade 9 students that are having trouble in regular classrooms) So, they took my English 10-2 class, which really sucked, and gave me K&E science, which is pretty cool. I also have a ISC class, which is a class for students that are not able to be in regular classrooms becuase of behavior problems or they need a lot of help or they are taking correspondance. I only have 2 in that class. I like my new classes, but it was hard to give up my English class because I really liked the students. And they are not very happy about it either. They are always asking me in the halls to come back and a lot of them told me how much they liked me as a teacher. So on one hand, that was nice to hear. If they never lost me, they never would have told me how much they like and miss me. At least I didn't lose a drama class.
So, I was kind of upset at first, but I'm past that now and I'm enjoying my new classes. In all honesty, it cut my work load in half, which is pretty nice. There is definitly a lot less marking to do.

Long time coming

So, many of you are probably wondering how my new job is. And let me say, IT'S AWESOME! I really love it. It's a lot of work and planning, but I'm really enjoying it. I love the school, the staff is amazing and the kids are so much fun. Not a day goes by that I don't split my guts from laughing. I have two really great Drama 20/30 classes. They are the easiest class of my day, and I go in ready for fun. The kids are cooperative, energetic and want to be there. What could be better than that? I have two Drama 10 classes. These guys are good as well, but I have a little more discipline problems with them. Just the age difference of grade 10 to 12. One group is huge-35 people, so it gets a little crazy, but they are fun. The other is smaller and doesn't get along with eachother quite as well, but they are coming around. I have one drama 9 class-thank goodness only one. The difference between 9's and 10's is pretty huge. We are doing improv right now, which they love, so things are going good. I'm not too excited to see what's going to happen when we move on to mime. I have a feeling they won't be quite as cooperative.
I also have one English 10-2 class. I love the students in this class. I want them all to succeed and they have responded very well to me. I was told when I started this class that the big challenge is just to get them to come to class everyday. And they are, so I'm already on to the next challenge and that is getting them to beleive in themselves and hand in their assignments. Some kids have already given up. It isn't that these kids aren't smart-they just have trouble with English. Most of them will probably go into trades and make more money than I do! I just need to teach them how to pass English 30-2. And that might be challenging. Some of them have trouble writing proper sentences! Not all though. There is a vast difference in ability in the class. But I really enjoy them and we are having some great discussions about life and self image. (The unit we are working on is Media and Self image.)
Anyway, hope that brings you up to date, if you are even still bothering to check this, considering how long its been since I've updated it. Love you all.