Back to the Classroom

Photo by dave_mcmt

I’m heading back to the classroom for the first time in over two years next week . . . but I won’t be the one sitting in a desk. I’m dusting off my teaching certificate and heading out to teach in a one-room school in rural Alberta for a few days. I’m really excited about going back into the classroom as I’ve been away for a couple of years. It’s always a little frightening to walk into a new group of students for the very first time, but I’ve been reassured by their teacher that the group of students I will be substitute teaching for are “really good kids.” I sure hope so!

I love kids energy and exuberance when they are learning something that excites and interests them. So I’ll do my best not to be boring! It’s always challenging for me because I learned teaching methods that were subject specific (English) so as a sub, I never know what subject I will be dealing with. Everything will be okay unless I have to teach senior level math. Then everyone will be in serious trouble, especially me. I have a tramatic past in mathematics; my grade 11 math teacher once told be that I should be “whipped, shot and hung” because I had “cancel-it-is.”

Luckily, my math skills got a lot better in college, and I lost some of my math paranoia. I hope that I’ll never tell a student something like they should be whipped, shot and hung! What a way to make an already nervous student lose even more confidence.

I hope that your fall classes are going well, and most of all that you never require being whipped, shot or hung in your academic career.