Day 5 at St. Florence: Getting into the Flow of Things

today i got to work with the special ed. teacher instead of the usual grade 1s. she is in charge of the spring concert this Thursday so much of today was spent decorating the gym with all the art projects each class made to display for their parents, putting up posters and signs and generally using up rolls of tape. there were some very creative pieces. the grade 4 class made crayon/pastel tshirts (cut out from paper) with Earth Day slogans and pictures on them. i put them up on the wall with some fishing line and clothes pins, and from a distance, it looks really cool. i can't imagine how some of this stuff gets done without student teachers and assistants year round. elementary teachers have so much to do in hardly any time. high school teachers get one period free for prep, on top of lunch -- the teachers here talk about such prep periods with a mixture of awe and envy. the only time these teachers seem to have is before class, recesses, lunch and when the students are in music or french.

anyways, today was also my first lesson. i was drafted into teaching a special ed. class science. we did flight, so for the last ten minutes of the day, we made paper airplanes and helicopters; tomfoolery was had by all.

working with a different teacher is quite the experience. the grade 1 teacher (wife of my program coordinator) has been teaching 30 years, so most of her stuff is routine and organized. this teacher, though statuesque, was confused by the new student teacher today as being a student. she is the type to say, "do whatever you want, you'll be fine," which is sort of the way i am. she's very nice and encouraging and puts the radio on during class. she tried to find Flow 93.5 this morning but got Barry White instead; i think Barry White (listen) for breakfast is a great way to start the day.

i got a pretty good dose of routine and organization last week and last year, so putting up decorations and throwing stuff around the room was a welcome reprieve.

about 0.0015 teslas/Chicago

since when did "chick magnet" become a moniker for me?
i'm sort of flattered, but i'm mostly thinking, "what am i doing to provoke this?"

sure beats being called a "ball magnet" though.

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[EDIT]10:35

Mel lent me Little Miss Sunshine and i watched it pretty much as soon as i got home. it's a cute loser movie, with lots of cringe-worthy awkward moments and a heart of gold. most of the movie was set to DeVotchka's How It Ends (listen). the beginning of the road trip across America was set to Sufjan Stevens' Chicago (listen), which is an inspired choice because of the album's glowing tribute to Americana.

anyhoo, Sufjan Stevens' Chicago performed in a capella!!!!


BONUS: Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr.

poignant and absolutely chilling.

Day 4 at St. Florence: Whispers

i went to fetch some students today who were perennially in the bathroom. they love washing their hands, i guess. anyway, as i neared the washroom, some older kids were hassling one of the students in my class at the water fountain; they were at least twice his size, pushing around a kid half my size. i gave them a stern, "hey, what's going on?" and they gave me an equally stern, "who the hell are you?" with their eyes and under their breaths. not one to pick fights with students i had never met yet, let alone any authority over, i shuffled off the maligned boy and went to the bathroom to find the other, calmly and casually. i went in, stopping just inside the door and called his name, but received no response. i waited a few more seconds before a gangly girl came out of a stall with a deer in the headlights look. what's a girl doing in the boys' bathroom? [beat] what am i doing in the girls' bathroom? calmly and casually, i walked back out and past the pushy big boys amidst guffaws, snickers, and whispers to the (real) boys' bathroom to await the student i had come to fetch. so if you hear any news of strange men in a Catholic school's girls' bathroom, that was me.

earlier in the day, before my wonderful adventure into awkward accident, i was setting out some wooden shapes on the desks of the students before class began. the music teacher (who tours other schools) came in to chat up the teacher i worked with. in whispers they discussed their opinion of me thus far as a teaching assistant. i went about my business and pretended not to hear anything (other than the music in my head) but i caught "he's great with the kids."

i hear that a little bit more often than the incredulous "teaching?!" when asked what i plan on doing after school, as if they expected me to be doing something more sexy with my life. for that i am relieved, affirmed and encouraged. going into the program i had some trepidation about my ability to teach. i am not a natural teacher or public speaker; my skills and interests lean more towards knowledge seeker than lesson preacher. but moments like the one above (not the one above the above) remind me of why i wanted to teach in the first place. teaching is not my career choice; being the best husband and father i can be is the career i've chosen. teaching just so happens to facilitate my career choice. though the earnings are modest, they are pretty much guaranteed coming out of school. the hours are regular (almost to a fault) and every summer i will have lots of time to spend with my (future) kids. i will be going into family building preloaded with mountains of experience raising children. in the voices and laughter of the kids i work with now, i hear whispers of the little ones i will one day raise.

Day 3 at St. Florence: The Visit

not by the Pope, which would've been a funny experience for me (watch out for Force-lightning), but by the district Superintendent. the reason for this visit was last year's pitiful EQAO scores. apparently there was a 3rd grade teacher in over her head and the scores reflected this. so the Superintendent dropped by and chatted up the principal and the 3rd/6th grade teachers. it was pretty cool seeing the teachers band together in a show of solidarity -- not that our visitor was a bad guy -- in the face of inspection. the principal shadowed him while other teachers would peek out of their rooms once in awhile. some made excuses to be in the hallways at regular intervals and raised signals when the Superintendent was spotted. the school halls were like gopher tunnels.

apart from that, my day was the usual dose of miscellany. i started off the day plainly enough by marking arithmetic (gotta get that mental math back up to speed). then i donned a SARS mask and cleaning gloves to spray acrylic sealer (matte finish) on some molded plaster flowers (soon to be Mother's Day fridge magnets). there was a lot of construction paper cutting as well.

lunch time = listening to conversation time.
today's topics: American Idol, Grey's Anatomy and the story of that time the teacher i'm working with took the grade 1s, 2s and 3s up north for a 2-night camping trip. she shared a tent with someone notoriously high maintenance, and after a day of activity, they unzipped the tent to find swarms of squirrels and chipmunks pouring out of the tent. apparently, HM woman had packed a bag full of chocolate.

Day 2 at St. Florence: Confidences

it's pretty amazing how quickly people open up to near-strangers when you just put in a little bit of time.

walking through the (tiny) halls i bumped into the French teacher and we almost didn't stop to chat. it looked like we were both about 50/50 in terms of wanting to stop to chat or not and looked to the other for body language hints to see which way the other was leaning. it was awkward for all of three seconds before we both decided to turn back to be introduced properly. turns out he used to teach High School Math back in his home country, Haiti, but is now stuck doing French for elementary. he is fairly miserable because most elementary students don't enjoy learning another language on top of struggling through English; he probably feels underpaid and under-appreciated. but it seems most of the kids really like him. he showed up at the door once and three kids leapt out of their seats -- one from the back of the room -- to hug him. it was sweet; they got in (minor) trouble.

i spent a good chunk of the morning coaxing one boy to copy out one sentence. in that time i found out he likes Spider-Man and French, occasionally tries to write with his left hand and returns everything he borrows immediately after he finishes using it. he has a lot of trouble with reading, writing and academics in general. for a grade 1 student, this entails mostly reading, writing and comprehension thereof. motivation is a problem too; he either drifts off into space or is easily distracted by what others say, latching onto that train of thought, forgetting his original focus (copying out that sentence).

the teachers know him very well. most of them lunch in the staff room. much of the conversation centres on the 'problem-child of the day' and carries on from there. i'm not one to gripe about kids -- i'll tell funny stories for sure, but purely for laughs -- but i see how this is a necessary thing for teachers. it allows them to unwind a bit when the infuriation sets in, and discuss with other teachers about possible solutions or tactics that may have worked in the past. parents, in general, figure prominently in these discussions. the teachers have personal relationships with these parents; they are considered extensions of the kids they teach and they make it a point to get to know the parents to get to know the kids better. unfortunately, many of the cases in this school are instances of "children raising children" in incomplete families. i listen in on scraps of conversation (as usual) to find out more about the kids i interact with to try and communicate with them more personally.

when i found out the boy liked French, i suggested that he tell his teacher once in awhile. i hope he remembers to. i'll have to bug him about it.