Well-I can’t come up with any excuses now not to respond in a timely fashion to posts!

The end of the first semester and the beginning of second semester comes so fast that you hardly have time to breathe.

Here are some things I’m happy about:

1) I’m really happy with the connection that I made with my ENG 3CI class.  They were all well behaved students, and they responded well with the activities we did in class. We have spent a lot of time discussing that bond that needs to be created with the students in order for them to respond well.  Although more work could have been completed (I think that’s just the nature of the beast), they certainly tried hard in class.

2) I’m really happy that I have been able to find my niche of home life and school life.  Now that I’m in my fifth year of teaching, I feel like I can relax a little bit and be confident in my abilities.  It wasn’t that long ago that I would freak out and work like crazy at home until I fell asleep with a book in my hand and the computer on still planning lessons.  Being able to relax at home has certainly made me a happier person all around. I am able to enjoy married life and family life.  I used to feel guilty if I went home and just focused on home life rather than school.  However, I have realized that all my colleagues have a home life. In fact, no one would ever sneer at the fact that you spent your evening with family rather than marking. Everyone is so understanding and trusting that you are competent and will get your own stuff done in your own time.

3) I too am happy at how I spent my prep time. I think this is the most amout of work that I have been able to accomplish in my prep time. I feel like I have found a way to be extremely efficient and effective with my lesson planning and my time management. It certainly is a lot nicer to complete everything at school rather than take it home 😉

Things I could be happier about

1) Well, I too have been neglecting our mentorship relationship. I guess I don’t really think about it because if I have a question, I just ask you and that’s that. 

2) I definately could be happier about the learning cycle.  I feel like I need a lot more time to go through all of my lessons and try to encorporate the learning cycle into it. I believe I already do go through the learning cycle with my  lessons-I just don’t necessarily call them the same things (ie. Rationale). I was glad for our dept. time together to get things organized, but I feel I need more time to look things over.

Well mentor-it looks like this mentorship will be put on hold until next year when I can finish up all workshops and NTIP requirements. Even though you haven’t felt like you’ve been doing a good job, y0u have been coming to my aid with all that I needed help with. You always seem to have the right answer and expert advice on how to clear up any situation that I may have come across!

Even though I’m not at school-can we still discuss things like the use of learning goals, learning cycles and how to continue to make students successful as well as ourselves in our own career?!