Today was the last day of my teaching placement! For this whole week I hadn’t really been able to decide whether I was happy or sad about it being over.
I was happy because it’s been HARD. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, and behaviour management was a WHOLE lot harder! I had several moments, especially in the first couple of weeks, when while I knew that I WANTED to do this, I wasn’t sure that I was actually capable of even keeping these kids from tearing up the classroom, let alone getting them focused enough to teach them anything worthwhile!
But I was also kind of sad. Although I would love to say that everything ended perfectly and the kids behaved well for me all day every day – they didn’t. I don’t think I ever “got them” like I ideally could have, but I passed the course, and my associate (who I didn’t like at first, but who I now DO like and am going to miss!) said that I had “grown” a lot in the time I was at the school, and that my confidence and teaching ability improved dramatically. I’m happy with that. I think this experience was extremely helpful to me. :)
She also said that this will be the hardest placement of the three, and I won’t have a difficult school and difficult class like this again. Thank goodness! Although, as I said to her in my thank you card “I learned a huge amount and wouldn’t go back and change anything, even if I could!”
Worst Moment: Nothing specific, just all the general drama that tends to happen with 12 year olds!
Best Moment: The school cross country was on Thursday morning. The Year 8 boys were the third group to run (3 times around the school field, jumping over hay bales and through tyres and other various things on the way). In my class there were two very different boys. K. is very bright, but also badly behaved. He was sent out of class almost every day. M. is very quiet, shy, stutters and has a teacher aide for reading and maths. K. is a fairly speedy runner, and didn’t take very long to get the whole way around. Meanwhile, M. is kind of dawdling along, clearly not enjoying it. A few minutes after all the other boys had finished and the Year 8 girls had started their race, I see K. and M. coming past AGAIN! My first thought was “Hold on! K.’s already finished! He’s lost count!” but when I called out to him to tell him to stop he replied that he was “Getting M. going!” That kid ran/jogged two extra laps with the other boy, just to make sure he finished it. None of the staff EVER saw it coming. Most memorable thing in the whole 5 weeks. Hands down. I hope he continues with THAT sort of behaviour instead of the disobedience – can you imagine what sort of adult he would be!?
Funniest Moment: Playing charades in Thursday afternoon drama. My associate deciding to try and act out Star Wars: The Attack of the Clones. Took ages for the kids to guess it, while I almost fell off my chair laughing at her (and of course making her laugh as well, which didn’t help her any!). I knew what it was beforehand because she whispered it to me to check she had the title right.
