End of a Term - Start of a New Year

So my first term as a teacher has officially ended. Now hopefully I will have time to breath.

This past term has taught me many many different things, both about myself and about my field. The first is most definitely that Teacher's Collage doesnt prepare you near enough for what you are getting into! The hours in the classroom are the least of your time, and yet they can be the most rewarding. Although the hours of preparation before a class are grueling and the hours of marking after never seem to end, the light in a student's eye as they give a good presentation or the discussions that are sparked in a debate, or even the smile and "good morning Ms. K" that I am greeted with each time I begin a class....that is what I am here for. That is what makes it all worth it.

This past term has also taught me (or at least tried to teach me) that I cannot expect so much of myself nor can I take each student's progress (especially the lack there of) as a personal failure. This is a lesson that I am sure I will need to continue to work on. Those of you who know me know just how hard on myself I am, and that just does not work in this environment. Failures are going to happen. There are going to be lessons that look great on paper and in my mind, but just DO NOT translate into the classroom; especially when language is a consistent challenge that must be overcome. And I cannot change all of the problems that these students come into the classroom with. One of the major issues that these students need to deal with is the combination of learning a new language in an environment where they only use it in certain classrooms (it is not until second term of grade 11 that they have all of there classes in English) and a constant rotation of teachers who rarely stay for longer than a year. Even if they get a teacher who works well with their learning style, the chance of them getting that teacher again is very slim. So these students do the bast that they can in the situation that they are placed in....but to be honest, many give up halfway through. I have never seen so many students fall asleep during a test (I even had 5 fall asleep during their final exam!) as I have seen here. And yet, I cannot change their willingness to work and will to succeed. I can only do the best that I can and realize that I will make mistakes...and hopefully the students will not hold it against me for too long.

So now it is time to relax, breath and reflect. And then get ready for next term, when it will start all over again...