Week One

            Today was my first day and I walked into a grade 7/8 class at St. Bernadette. When we got into the classroom, it was just the teacher, my partner and I. We all talked and he let gave us a bit of a run-down of how the afternoon was going to go and it ended up going a bit different. As the students were slowly coming into the classroom, we had one little girl come over to me and my partner and tell us that we were very pretty and others come to say hi. As soon as the kids started to get settled after lunch, they got back up and left straight to French class so we weren’t able to introduce ourselves before that. While the students were with another teacher for that class, our assigned teacher gave us a tour of the school then we went and joined the back of the French class and observed the teaching. While watching the French teacher, she did something that one of my teachers used to do, she would give points to whatever group was the fasted at being quiet and looking at her. She did it a little different by spinning a wheel to the groups their points so they could only get up to 4 points per spin. When we got back to the classroom, we finally got to introduce ourselves and answered any questions the kids had.

            The first day didn’t go as planned, we were supposed to walk to the Church today but when the principle drove over, the doors were locked so we were then unable to. When we realized that, there were only about 7 minutes left of the recess, so we didn’t go outside today but we talked to one of the students that stayed in. We then had a practice mass in the gym instead which took about an hour and a half. It was good sitting in the gym and observing all the teachers and students around us. There were tons of very quiet kids but we would also see the kids that needed to be moved or talked to for talking too much. Seeing how the classroom was set up was very cool, there were desks and tables. Our teacher said that he gives the cleaner students the desks and the dirtier students the table. He gives the dirtier students the desks to try and teach them to be cleaner. He also let us know that he changes the sitting plan on the first of every month. The desks and tables were in rows but different, there were 6 rows but they were in pairs. There was 1 table per row and 2 pairs of desks either behind, in front or both. It was very different from what I’ve ever seen before and is different from the standard rows. The learning environment was very welcoming and definitely one that I would’ve loved as a kid in elementary school. It is very different from when I was in elementary school. The space was very welcoming, the students and the teachers at the school are also very welcoming.