Showing Some Love!

I've been ranting a lot lately about how awful working with some of my co-teachers is and frankly I feel like I need to show'em some love.

My co-teacher with grade 3s and 4s is so organized in terms of resources she not only threw me a lifesaver, but an entire cruise ship of book report formats and folders for my afternoon classes that are so aesthetically pleasing I'm still beaming from the sight of them. I'll be carrying the reports on a USB key until I retire. She's really on top of her game. We'll be working on interviewing grade 6 students who will be, for lack of a better word, my interns and/or afternoon coffee-fetchers for the rest of the year. Pretty exciting. I'm pretty ecstatic about my afternoon classes and I feel the resources my CT has given me prior to are gonna make these classes so much better. The best thing about her is her teacher talk - although she can be a little blunt in sensitive situations she's tons of fun when we talk about the kids. She is starting to replace the less pleasurable co-teacher in terms of explaining my new roles and she's doing a better job. If there are any issues with my renewal I feel her and my fave CT will back me any day of the week, no problem.

My fave co has now upped the ante for me: I now need to submit lesson plans (Yippee! there's not a grain of sarcasm in that statement. Yet.) and ideally run the entire class when I'm with her. This still means I'm only doing one lesson plan a week but its a skill I need to harness if to avoid a major reality check upon returning to Canada, which will happen eventually. But the reins are in my hands, she only plans on speaking as a translator. This means I'll have to talk slower then I do now, but I feel this is a habit I need to develop when I'm teaching by myself.

I haven't talked the grade 6 teacher in a while, she's been sick lately and she isolates herself in what is by far the best classroom in the school, frankly I'd probably do it too. But I walked through her class on my break to get to my office and she was speaking English for almost a whole minute! This is groundbreaking!

Now, outside of school, I have just started playing in the Spring ROKU League with a stellar team. Despite losing a tough game saturated with politics on rulings and a tough zone defense, we pulled off two victories out of our 3 games separated by an hour a piece. A long, long day to say the least, just ask my legs. Our philosophy is to utilize our speed and solid fundamentals to win our games, and, with the trust I have in my handlers, I personally run with the belief that dumping wins games. Everyone on this team has energy and extra room in their heart for fun-loving teammates. I can wait to see how the rest of the season heats up. I like our chances to make a run for the pennant, but anything can happen, and nothing's impossible.  

There's the love, pay it forward.