What a day! This has been a very long, tiresome but informative day. I started out early this morning at 9am where we were welcomed with bag pipes and speakers in the auditorium and then finally lead to our Theory and Professional Practice course which deals with our practicum experience throughout the year. Let me just mention that this year Queen's accepted a whopping 750 education candidates!! Apparently this is the most they have ever had, so they've warned us that there may be glitches but eventually everyone will be sorted out. My section's classroom was the size of a small bedroom, I had to crane my neck around because of how small and awkwardly placed the desks were but thankfully we'll be in a bigger and nicer room on Thursday. My professor just screams primary/junior education and it did take some getting used to (imagine being talked to like a child, with stickers and happy faces on our name tags, and she even gave us apples as a class treat lol). We went over requirements, expectations from the course, school's we'll be working in during practicum, our team mates in those schools and we also made group educational resumes which summed up the skills, experiences and interests we all bring to the table as educators. The resume was my favourite part because a) so many people have had overseas experiences b) we had a great representation of females and males in our PJ group c) you could see the attributes that made everyone a unique but effective educator. Sadly, I was the only one with a full out science major and minor but I guess that makes me special!
Afterward we were ushered into registration where I received my student id (which had my photo oddly cut off on one end lol) and then lunch time where people were forced to make friends and have conversations with their neighbours in the cafeteria. It completely reminded me of frosh week four years ago where everyone searches for a familiar face before being forced to say hello to strangers. My housemate and I later went to check out information about entering the Catholic school board and the steps and documents necessary to apply. It looks like I'll have to make friends with a priest this year as I will need not only a pastoral letter but a signature for a portfolio I will create specifically on my views of Catholic education. Being in a new city they offered us suggestions of local parishes and community work that could help enrich our perspectives and hopefully give us a competitive edge among all the TC's applying for jobs next year.
We were given so much information about buildings, maps, local areas to check out, graduate student resources, things to consider when applying to school boards, etc that my head hurts haha The amount of papers/documents given was quite alot but at least they gave us a cute blue recyclable shopping bag with our school and faculty on it to carry them in :P If the schedule today is just a preview of what's to come, it's no wonder they suggest to avoid part time jobs or too many extracurriculars. Most of my days run from 8:30 to 5:30 with only a half hour break between for lunch. I realize that seems like a regular working day but to stay focused on lecture material for almost 2 to 3 hours per course non stop is asking a lot! Luckily the program seems to be mostly group work and assignments rather than exams, so I hope this will give me an opportunity to produce some quality work that allows me to get honours distinction in the program rather than stress in a test scenario.
I still don't know what grade I will be teaching during my practicum but I do know that the Monet reading needs to be done asap before the real work load starts piling up ( yea...I still haven't finished...haha). On that note, I think I'd better grab a coffee and keep reading.
Wish me luck!
PS. Almost forgot to mention that we've been given very official looking name tags that we have to wear during classes and practicum. On one side it says Ms. V for practicum days and on the other side it has my first name to help out the profs! They're quite spiffy with the university logo, etc and I feel like I've been initiated into a really tough club :P
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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Miss V,
ReplyDeleteIt is always exiting to get started on a new program. I hope that you are enjoying the start of yours. It sounds like you will be very busy. It will be fun to catch glimpses of what your education program is like. I also did an undergraduate degree first and then a Master's to get my teaching license. It was a program where we had summer classes and then student teaching and afternoon classes during the school year and a second summer. It was busy, but a great experience.
My program was much smaller though, nothing close to 750!