the good, the bad, and the ugly at S.J. Willis

The good: My "mentor teacher," Mike Greenwood.  An excellent math (and physics and chemistry) teacher in the continuing education program, he was very helpful in making me feel welcome and productive during my observation period.  He provided me with some lecture notes/lesson plans (one and the same in his teaching style), examples of tests and assignments, and even allowed me to try out teaching a class, which was a nervous but important experience.  As I understand it, I will be teaching two of his math classes when I return to the school in April.

The bad: The general school environment for a student teacher.  Thanks to the different nature of the school setting, there were very few active classes to observe, including not a single active social studies course despite 3 of the 4 of us student teachers sent to S.J. Willis having social studies as a teaching area.  While most the staff tried to be helpful and welcoming, the school had never before had student teachers posted there, and as a result most people weren't too sure what to think about us or what we were doing there.  Particularly in the two blocks before lunch, I felt as if a lot of the time I spent in the school was largely unproductive.

The ugly: My left eye, for the second week of the observation.  Playing as a soccer goalkeeper, my game on the Sunday between the two observation weeks saw me scramble to recover after knocking clear an initial shot, and in the ensuing chaos I took a full force volley from about a meter away straight in the face.  This resulted in a fat black eye (and a mild concussion), making it look as if I had been on the wrong end of a fistfight, earning me countless strange or puzzled looks from students or staff.  Though I tried to fire off brief explanations at possible occasions, I think lots of the students and staff think I was off engaging in activities unfit for a professional, which was not the case.