My CFE experience at Star of the Sea was very enjoyable. I found that every teacher I was able to work with provided me with valuable ideas and experiences that I can now take forward with me as I embark on my TTOC adventures.

For example, some teachers gave me ideas on how to keep my grade books, others showed me cool ideas such as a “task board” in which the students move through centres like reading and then the next station would be writing about their reading and then the next could be drawing about what you wrote. I thought it was a very creative way to bring the students through an activity that would seem daunting without being split up.

During my CFE I was also able to make some discoveries about my personal teaching style and philosophies. This I think will come in extremely handy when trying to decide which schools/ districts I would be most happy in. I think that I am more suited for a public school, however, really enjoyed the community feel of the independent school, therefore I think I would be most happy in a public school that had a strong focus on community.

I was also able to gain some valuable insight into what grades I would be most happy teaching. Having completed my extended practicum in a grade 4/5 combination classroom  I already knew that I would be happy teaching intermediate and in particular the upper intermediate classes, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I actually really enjoy working with the little ones as well. I found that I was really able to feed off of their positive energy and have a lot of fun while getting lots of learning done as well.

All in all my CFE experience was great. If I were to do this again I would probably choose a different setting as their was not a lot going on in the classes since it was the very end of the school year. In fact, the last week was almost all assemblies and fun events, which was great for me, however, was not very conducive to learning and taking away as much as I feel I could have.