Category Archives: Along the Way: Quotes, Thoughts, Epiphanies, etc.

Day 5 in the UK: Lynn Grove Academy visit and interview

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On Thursday I was excited to go visit Lynn Grove Academy.  They were my second choice from the interview event that Engage Education set up for us.  I was torn between which three schools I was going to put as the top of my choices.  I knew this was one of my top choices but I had to rank them carefully to make sure that I got matched if they chose me.  I ended up putting Lynn Grove Academy as my second choice as I felt like they were going to offer me exactly what I was looking for in a job (6 months with the option to extend, have the opportunity to do extra-curricular sports that I’m familiar with, as well as a school that will mentor me to develop strong skills and equip me as a starting teacher).  I had put a different school down as my first choice as I thought I had a stronger interview with that school, but I didn’t get a follow up interview/school visit.

Upon arrival to the town, I was picked up by my consultant and shown around the area.  I was felt completely at ease because it kind of felt like home already, we were right on the coast which is what I’m used to considering I’ve lived in Vancouver and Richmond, which are both right by the water.  The way the classes were run were very similar to that of Carlton Bolling (to see my post about that school click here), the main differences were the demographics of students (almost no immigrants), the students seemed better behaved (I wonder if it has to do with teaching style and classroom management), and their approach to differentiated learning was different (instead of confining each student to their expected level of work, they were given challenge questions to try and achieve higher than they were “capable” of).  All of the staff were very friendly and welcoming and I felt very comfortable while teaching my mini lesson.  At the end of the day, they must have felt comfortable with me as well, as I got the job offer around an hour after my visit was over.  This is definitely going to be a crucial part of my journey to becoming a seasoned teacher, the six months starting in January, are going to test my skills and build more character in me.  I am looking forwards to this opportunity and I am excited to see what life has in store for me.

 

Funny stories of that day:

  1. First reaction of the principal of the school when she saw me was, “Your taller than I expected.  You looked smaller when we did the Skype interview.”
  2. When given a tour of the history wing, the head of history showed me one class and said that if I decided to take the job I would be in this particular class.  As soon as she said that, I started imagining what sort of “Mr. Dengler flair” I could add to classroom (I didn’t even know if I would be offered the job yet!!  How dare me!!).

Day 4 in the UK: Carlton Bolling College visit

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On Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit a school in the city of Bradford called Carlton Bolling College.  This was a school that didn’t interview anyone that came through Engage Education, but because they are closely affiliated, and I only had one school who asked me to visit for a second interview on Thursday, Engage Education arranged for me to visit Carlton Bolling just to get an idea of the British school system/curriculum.

It was interesting to visit this school because there is an extremely high population of Pakistani Muslims so it wasn’t a “typical” British school (92% “non-native English speakers” in the school with over 90% of them being from Pakistan).  I observed 4 classes and all together I saw only 2 students who were not Pakistani.  Aside from the school having different demographics from what I’m used to, I was immediately drawn in to how the power structure and professionalism was so strict in the classrooms.  Teachers called each other “Miss” or “Sir” inside the classroom (they were on a first name basis in common places, such as the staff room) as did students to the teachers.  The teachers were extremely direct with students, if one misbehaved he/she could be sent to the hallway without a warning.  This is so different from when I was volunteering and teaching at schools in BC because we were trained to give students warnings and chances to correct their behaviour (a more rehabilitative approach).

What I really loved about the school was that they made teaching differentiated skill levels so easy.  In BC we discussed teaching using a differentiated approach, but it was hard because it was all on the teacher to figure out how.  At Carlton Bolling College, they had a system in place, where based on students’ performances the previous year, they have a target level to reach each class.  For example, in Canada it would be like if a student had an A average the year before, their daily skill level shown should be a 8-9, if they get a B average they need to do 6-7 level work, etc.  The way that teachers assess if students are reaching their target level of learning is by having in class questions to answer and each question has a skill level associated with it, if students are able to answer correctly, then they have achieved their skill level for the day.  What also makes it so easy for teachers to create work so that they are comparative to other teachers is that they set all their expectations at the beginning of the school year.  Teachers will discuss what lessons to do for what grade, and collaboratively come up with lessons and worksheets, etc.  After compiling everything, the department head compiles it all into their database for everyone to access.  Of course teachers also will have their say in how they execute each lesson and sometimes even have a lesson unique to themselves, but in general all teachers have the same expectations and tools to work with.

Overall, I really like some of what has been set in place (especially with the differentiated learning).  I feel like some of the classroom control strategies are very harsh at times, but that is probably because I was taught to do things differently so my ideals are a little bit different when it comes to discipline.

To see school statistics visit: https://www.schoolguide.co.uk/schools/carlton-bolling-college-bradford

To see school website visit: http://www.carltonbolling.co.uk/

 

Fun story of that day:

In one class particularly, a few students were extremely curious about me and where I come from.  One student asked me, “Do you like Canada or here better?”

I replied with, “I can’t compare because I haven’t been here long enough.  If I asked you the same question could you decide?”

Without much pause he said, “I like Canada better than here.”

So I asked, “How can you say that?  Have you been to Canada?”

He said, “Well I watch a Canadian Youtuber and I think they have nice houses.”

Then I asked, “What part of Canada is he from?”

No reply…

It’s funny how he thought Canada is the best place ever, yet I really don’t think he understands how big Canada really is, and how what he sees in those videos are probably from a wealthier part of a large city.

Day 1 in the UK: a new leg of my journey?

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It has been a while since I’ve done any teaching in a classroom so now I’ve decided to go to the UK to see if I have any luck in getting a job offer, as well as to travel a little bit.  This week will be an opportunity for me to experience the British school system and potentially get a job offer starting in January.  This opportunity was made possible by an international recruiting agency called “Engage Education”.  I plan to take my career back to school districts in British Columbia, but in the meantime I want to stay in practice and do some teaching anywhere I can.  Stay tuned this week as I begin to explore my options of teaching in the UK.

 

Fun stories of the day:

  1. While on a layover in London on my way to Manchester, my connecting flight was delayed so I decided to walk around the terminal.  I guess I looked lost because an airport employee approached me and asked if I needed help with anything.  When I told her my situation with my layover she said something to the extent of, “I guess that gives you an opportunity to shop while you wait for your flight.”  I looked around and laughed to myself because I saw big name brands such as “Louis Vuitton”, “Ray Ban”, “Ted Baker”, and “Rolex” (which I can obviously afford, not).
  2. Upon arriving to Manchester, a cab picked me up to take me to my hotel in Leeds.  On the way I realized that I had a lock on my suitcase, but I left my keys back at home in Vancouver.  Upon arriving to the hotel, I awkwardly asked the receptionist if he had a bolt cutter to cut my lock.  He had to go ask his manager who struggled to cut it with regular wire cutters.  Upon failing, he asked me if I was strong and wanted to give it a try, which I did and succeeded.  Can you imagine this whole situation going wrong because I either couldn’t open my suitcase, or the manager didn’t believe that it was actually my luggage?  What makes this even funnier was that on my last trip to Mexico, my lock was cut by US customs so they could rummage through my luggage.  I joked with my dad that this was going to happen on this trip again and in the end I had to personally cut my own lock.

 

UBC CFE Final thoughts and lessons

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During the duration of this CFE, many lessons were learned through the schools, but many more were learned outside as well.  Many of our life lessons were learned from the apartment that we stayed in.  This apartment was provided by Technologico de Monterrey at no cost to us, but there were lots of problems that also came along with it.  There was no wifi, no hot water, the floorboards were uneven, the refrigerators were not fully working, there was no washing machine, etc.

At first we were abhorred at our bad luck, but overtime, we overcame each problem one by one.  To combat not having wifi, we downloaded offline versions of movies to watch while we were at school so that we had something to watch at our apartment.  To combat not having hot water, we decided to make use of the showers at school.  For the weak refrigerators, we just bought food that didn’t need refrigerating.

I personally felt that the biggest accomplishment that we achieved was overcoming the lack of a washing machine.  Since there was no washing machine, we had to improvise by using a bucket and a washing sink.  We couldn’t just leave our dirty clothes because we needed more to wear.  The process we went through was to fill a bucket of water and detergent, then added our dirty clothes.  After soaking the clothes, we put them into the sink to rinse out then we hand wrung and hung the clothes.  Since we didn’t have hangers, we had to hang them wherever we could (on chairs, in closets, etc.).

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This shows our capabilities of improvisation, adaptability, and thinking on the spot.  This reflects skills needed by beginning teachers because lessons may not go as we plan for them to be.  As a result, we have to be able to think on our toes and change what we have to or adapt our lesson so that we get our lesson going and still keeping to our lesson objectives.  We need to use all tools at our disposal even if it wasn’t something that has a use that it was intended for.