A Few Thoughts

I’ve been at my practicum placement for a week and a half. – not quite the half -way mark. There is a lot to say, and a lot that should be discussed, but for confidentiality reasons (the students’, not mine) I’m not sure that a blog is the best place to share all those thoughts. It is a very low income, high needs school: it isn’t uncommon to hear of incarcerated parents (one or both), rehabilitating parents, and calls to Children’s Aid. With these kinds of backgrounds, it is not hard to imagine the struggles that may (and do) also happen at school in terms of learning and behavioural exceptionalities. I have really appreciated the school’s philosophy of understanding and taking into consideration the challenging home life, and yet not making excuses for it.
Being in the classroom has been a great experience – my associate teacher is an experienced, capable, and encouraging woman, the students are already growing on me, and I’m taller than all but one or two (or three). I have only been mistaken for a student once -at least that I know of – by the cleaning lady who called me her “little one.” Not bad.