January 23rd 2015 marks my first employment situation. I was hired as a teacher on call. Immediately after my interview at the school board office I jumped on the bus and made my way over to Cordova Bay Elementary where I was invited to attend a seminar on Inquiry. PERFECT. I am a very strong supporter of inquiry, however have very little understanding of it in application. That can be left for another post I think. The purpose of brining that up was to lead into describing the feeling of returning to the school after having spent 11 weeks there (9 practicum, 2 volunteer) and then breaking for winter break. Returning to the hallways of the school was an awesome feeling. As one Educational Assistant (EA) exclaimed “everyone is talking as if there is a rockstar roaming the school”, only a few students had seen me, however, like social media the word was out and it spread fast. I know this would be the same for any other teacher that had been in absence suddenly showing up too, however this was my first experience with that. Some students would take any opportunity they had to pop their head into the hallway at the chance they may be able to say hi.
I was on my way to the seminar when one young boy I had taught during my practicum caught me. Of course, he persuaded me to pop into the classroom. It was dead silent. They were all deep into SURF (Silent, Uninterrupted, Reading, Fun) time. It took about 10 seconds for them to realize I was there by one student calling out “it’s Mr. Ball”. Immediately hands were up higher than ever. Almost everyone had something to say. The few with their hands down received eye contact and a smile from me, and I received one back. On a side note, it was those students that didn’t put their hands up right away that gave me extremely thoughtful gifts at the end of my practicum along with personal letters. Some of the first questions asked were about the movie that I have been working on for them of all the pictures I had taken during practicum. On the last day of my practicum I showed them a trailer of the movie. They loved it. Unfortunately the movie is not ready yet. They will have it before the end of the school year though. I reminded them of the real movie system, that it can take a while before a movie comes out after seeing a trailer, they agreed. The next few hands-up I attended to were about some of the challenge questions I had left with them two weeks before I finished my practicum. Some had kept working on them. Others wanted to mention that one of the questions didn’t represent a real life situation (price of hockey stick and puck: would be “much much more”). In response to this great observation I turned the question around and asked them to change the question so that it would work with real world prices. They seemed to like the challenge. Another question I received was “why are you dressed up so nicely?” (I was wearing a full suit). They were elated to hear that those reference letters that they had written for me when I finished my practicum really helped me; they aided in me in getting a job interview in their school district which means that I may be able to teach them when Ms.###### is away. I explained that I had just come from that job interview which was why I was dressed up this way. I had to stop the questions short as A. I was missing a bit of the seminar and B. I was breaking the U in SURF. Walking down the hallway just about to enter the seminar room I hear another “Mr.Ball!” from a young girl in grade 5 who attended the Photography Club I had taught at lunchtime and was also on the soccer team that I coached. Sadly I couldn’t stop and talk to her right then.
The warm welcome was not only from students, but from teachers, administration and parents too. It really was a great feeling. I have to admit, after finishing my practicum and winter break happening, I really wondered how the relationships that were created would stand the time away. I know it was only a short amount of time, however I am not at the school 8 hours a day anymore. It’s nice to know that I’ll be able to work there now as a TOC.
As I was one of the soccer coaches for the school we finalized the season with a Jamboree. At the Jamboree I received a passing wave from a student I had taught during my first practicum in 2011. She was in grade 2 then. Amazing! Now, do I remember her name? No. Does she remember mine?Maybe? But wow, one of the perks of being a teacher, hey!
During my practicum I was often given a ride home from another teacher who had been teaching for 42 years. We would stop at the grocery store on the way to my place. She didn’t have to venture too far before someone she taught any # of years ago would stop her to say hi.
It was hard to see some of the connections with students when I was going full speed during my practicum, but returning again with some time in-between was the perfect icing on the cake.