The track meet on Tuesday was easily the most fun I’ve had at practicum so far. I always knew I was a competitive person, but I was REALLY getting into it at the track meet. In hindsight I hope I didn’t embarrass myself by screaming too much. I’ve never been more proud of my students too. I was the sprint coach, and we placed first or second in EVERY relay event. Obviously I didn’t have too much to do with this, but I like to think I helped. The kids in my grade 7 class did really well, and it was nice to see the girls participating in something athletic. It’s often a challenge to get them to make an effort in PE, and it was nice to see them trying their best ‘for the team’. I am a true believer in the power of team sports to build confidence and help teach kids the importance of working together and cooperation. I was able to see this in action on Tuesday.

It’s been a strange week with the ProD on Monday, the job action, and track meet. I actually only had 2 real teaching days at the school this week, and in reality, I think I only taught 2 lessons. We’ve been spending almost all of our time preparing for sports day, rehearsing our parent appreciation tea song, working on yearbooks, or various other school activities. I’ve been trying to finish up my math and socials units, but it sure has been difficult to find time in the day. Next week is even worse, because we have another day of job action, sports day, the parent tea, school photos, caricature drawing (?), and probably a million other things. The kids are pretty restless at the moment, and who can blame them? They feel the end of the year is coming, they’ve worked hard all year, and most of the day is taken up by small tasks that need to be done for various grad or school events. If all of a sudden someone expected me to buckle down and write poetry, I wouldn’t exactly be too into it either.

I was thinking that it would have been better to have this practicum at another time of year when I could have actually had more time to TEACH, rather than manage all the stuff that the grade 7s are doing at the end of the year. But now, I’m starting to realize that this is all part of the job and that I’m probably learning a lot of valuable lessons right now. Today I got a sense of just how much preparation and organization goes into sports day each year. I know it’s supposed to be the grade 7s planning it, but really, the grade 7s plan what each station activity is, but the teachers are the ones planning the logistics of the event, coordinating with the PAC, buying the materials, organizing the teams, making the schedule, etc. etc. Having never been in charge of a grade 7 class, and never planned a sports day, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment with the amount of work there still is to do. I’m sure it will all work out- it always seems to. I just need to remember to buy 150 water balloons this weekend…