Today is our first day of work with the school. We had a staff meeting with all of the teachers so we got to meet a lot more people today. Everyone is super friendly and helpful which makes the whole experience a lot easier on us.
At the moment I am teaching two blocks of English 11, 1 block of intro to English 10 and one block of Drama/IT ?! Who knows. When I went to talk to the Principal today about what I was teaching he had no idea that i'm not specialized in English. I told him it would be most ideal if I could teach either Math or Social Studies, so hopefully next semester I can switch it up a little bit and teach something I am a little bit more comfortable with. I had told the vancouver office this information, but apparently this information didn't really transfer over which is slightly unfortunate. Oh well, I'm just glad that I will be teaching full time and not stuck at the pool for yet another year of my life :)
A lot of the kids arrived at the school yesterday which is making this all feel like it's really happening. I know that sounds funny but I was talking with other people and they agree that so far it all feels like we are on a vacation or something along those lines. We're actually starting to do some work now which is going to be great to keep my mind off of missing things at home. I have my moments. I had one this morning while I was running around the track 14 times just so I could do at least 6km. I miss being able to step out of my house and run up to Mundy Park, or running Rocky Point after coaching. I also miss not feeling like I'm going to pass out during my runs :S That's the only big thing that is bothering me. I was able to find some cucumbers and tomatoes at metro (a big cosco like store) which has made my snacking a lot better. I had been snacking on candy all the time which was probably not the best thing for me! I think it was a little bit of a comfort thing as well.
A day later….
I’m starting to just write out a journal in a word document and then post it into the blog for all to see. We’ve made a new close friend, Amanda who is living by herself at the moment and really wanted a roommate. She’s connected with us and we all really wanted to move in together. There are a few three and four bedroom places in the building beside us on campus so we looked at them yesterday. They are so much nicer and way bigger than the place we are in now. The kitchen has so much more room, the couch is comfier, it’s a flat screen TV and I will have an office so that I can do my coursework for my distance classes. We just got the word that they are cleaning it today so hopefully we can be in by the end of the day, or in the afternoon tomorrow after work.
We’ve started to do some planning for the first week of school, considering it is in less than a week :S I’m a little intimidated by teaching English, as I have no background in it whatsoever, but I’m crossing my fingers and diving head first into it. Robyn and Brianne (my desk neighbor) are teaching English 11 as well so they’re giving me pointers and leading me in the right direction. Apparently the first week is going to be a huge learning experience anyways though. Our students are just coming off summer holidays where they haven’t really been practicing their English. So the students are going to range from totally understanding everything you say, to students who are using digital translators for everything that you are saying to them. Judging on the placement exams we had to mark on Monday they were not exaggerating about this.
Anywho, off to my first Pro-D session. I know, sounds like a hoot and you wish you could join in as well.
***Carly, I will send you a personal email soon***
-Taryn
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