Although I did end up getting sick this week, I had another great week at St. Mary’s! The more time I spend at this school, the more I appreciate this community and the privilege I have to be a part of it for these few weeks.

I have been asked to reflect on the differences I see between this school/class, and my previous practicum experience.  I should start by mentioning that my elementary and high school education took place in schools governed by the Catholic Independent Schools of Vancouver (CISVA).  These are semi-independent (funded 50% by the BC government and 50% by tuition and fundraising) schools across the lower mainland  with a few like St. Mary’s, which are a little farther out of town.  There are 48 K-12 schools in the CISVA and they share a similar Catholic curriculum, they also strictly follow BC’s curriculum as well.  I am very comfortable in this setting (my Mom teaches in a CISVA school, as well as many of my relatives) and feel drawn to spend my career in this setting as well.  Teaching in a faith based school is very similar to teaching in a public school.  These schools are not elitist or unaffordable.  We include religious content across the curriculum and try to make as many connections as we can to spread God’s word in the classroom.  So to compare the two, I would say they are the same except in Catholic schools, there are prayers at lunch and at the end of the day.  In conflict resolution, the children usually are instructed to pray and think about how God or Jesus would see the situations.  At St. Mary’s the children also go to Mass once a week (Most CISVA schools go once a month) and have a trusting relationship with the parish pastor.  This being said, not all students are baptized Catholics, so we still honour a diversity of beliefs in the classroom.  The class sizes are unfortunately bigger.  The class of grade threes I am placed with at St. Mary’s has 27 students.  CISVA elementary schools also typically have french preps from K-7 which is different also.  I do believe that kids are kids no matter where you are.  There are a handful of students in my class with very difficult pasts/home lives.  There are also several students with special needs in the class. As an example of how I can best compare the two,  I had to teach inappropriate ways of being touched and assertive behaviour in my 10-week practicum.  I am now teaching the same unit with this grade three class but from a different perspective.  The unit is called “I am a gift from God”, and it has the same message that I taught to my practicum class, but this time the focus is more religious.  We spend time having the same conversations I had with the practicum class but we finish with a chat about how God loves us and then we pray together.

On another note, St. Mary’s is very different from my own experience of both previously attending a CISVA school and being employed as a teaching assistant in a CISVA school.  The schools I had been in before were much larger, more urban, and had newer buildings, plenty of resources, technology, etc.  St. Mary’s is a very old school and does not have a wealthy alumni/parent base, like several other CISVA schools have. The teachers are wonderful and are teaching in innovative ways and using the inquiry model, but they are slightly limited due to budgetary restraints.

I hope I have done an adequate job of reflecting on the differences between a Catholic school and my experience with a public school practicum.  I know I spent little time defecting on my 10-week practicum, but the public school setting is probably most familiar to most of us.