Back to School

We're back at school after a nice winter vacation. What do I and my co-teachers have planned you ask? Well the textbook is finished, there are no more tests, what should we do? Check out? Probably.

My Grade 6 and Grade 5 CTs gave me the heads up before the break that I'd be in charge of lesson planning for February. After a couple days of watching Modern Family and mentally shooting crumpled paper into a waste basket I came up with topical and cultural lessons to close out the year. We're going to talk about the Olympics, World Foods and Pasta, Black History Month and Valentines Day. Even though I can skate by the next two weeks (8 days now) with 2 lesson plans the idea of teaching the same lesson 16 times makes me cringe. So I have some back-pocket ideas to stave off my boredom once I conquer one lesson or get tired of it.

I'm excited about this opportunity to actually craft my own lessons that don't work off of the textbook. Even though it's not my best work I think the kids will enjoy it and be interested enough not to wander out of class. My Grade 6 CT fell asleep the last time I was in charge during my third class in Korea, I'm excited to see if it happens again. The Over/Under is 2. Regardless, the important thing remains that they're learning.

Homeroom teachers are all probably doing all their report cards and evaluations to wrap up their year. As a specialist teacher with zero marking obligations so I have zip on my plate. It takes me back to the days of June when I was a lad and the cool kids would bring in Star Wars and MIB (one girl always brought in Grease, I never liked her) to watch as our homeroom teacher worked away to the blasting lasers. Hopefully that can be me in August. I've been having dreams in BitStrips sparking my craving for some excitement and stimuli in this job. I have to make a list of goals and challenges for myself this up coming school year to become a more tech-savvy teacher. If only Internet Explorer could handle Prezi, even that would be a break. All in all I've learned a lot about teaching here and I'm sure I can learn more if given the opportunity to go outside the box.