Day 9 starts with the drop in observation in a TOK (Theory of Knowledge) class, which is one of the most interesting classes that all the teachers would recommend watching. I have also watched one of the TOK classes during my short practicum back in Churchill. The only difference was that in Churchill I was watching the TOK class discussing art topics, and in St. John’s the topic was math. Other than the topics, in my opinion students in Churchill and St. John’s are overall both very engaged and thoughtful. The recent topic was “is math discovered or invented?” and it was an honour to be able to help out the teacher in the class by sharing my understanding of mathematics. In my opinion that was one of the best classes I have ever observed throughout my practicums, as I can see engaging activities that provide students hands-on experience, inquiry that inspires students’ critical thoughts, and the combination of different subjects (I saw at least math, arts, computer science, and physics) that all types of students can relate and draw connections.
Another highlight of the day was that I continued teaching Sukhbir’s Math 10 Enriched class. At this point of time students are already learning Grade 12 level materials, and Sukhbir told me that he wanted to push the students as far as we can, so I planned a lesson and created a worksheet that seemed to be really challenging for them. Therefore we decided to slow down a bit to let them catch up, after all the fact that these grade 10 kids are learning (some are actually mastering) grade 12 level material was already very impressive for me.