Year 2

Well, I've been back now for about a month and a half. It's gone by so fast! This year is quite intense for me. Last year I co-taught grade 4 with Jill, who was amazing! It was a great way to start, because she taught all of the science, and I taught all of the math. We were also able to level the English classes. It was great, but now I find myself at a bit of a loss. Teaching math isn't too bad, I've done it before, and although not all of the kids understand it, I feel like I really know the material and it's easier for me to help them. Science and English on the other hand are quite a struggle. There's so much more that comes with teaching science... it's such an abstract thing to teach sometimes. The students don't know English very well, and so a lot of the science vocabulary is totally new for them. I've been trying to use a lot of pictures and videos, and I also am not using the book aside from looking at pictures, because it's just full of words that are overwhelming to them. So I take a lot of time to really learn the material, and then I just teach it, as opposed to them reading it out of the book. But this takes a lot of extra time! There are also a lot of experiments that we do. But these books are designed to be taught in America, so some of the materials are difficult to find, and I don't know where everything is because I've never had to use it before. English is just as challenging. I have students who can't read, and students who are on grade level, so it's hard to know what to teach and how to teach it when the ability levels are so vast.
Not to mention all of that, I have 25 students! It doesn't sound like much, I know they get about 30 in the states, but when it's a bilingual classroom, 25 is a lot! It's actually the maximum number of students they will put in a classroom. There are also a few students with special circumstances that need to be considered. It's hard to stay on top of everything.
But it's been good so far. I've worked some days from 7:30am-10:00pm, but you do what you have to do I guess. I don't really know how to not work hard :P But after this year things should get easier (if I stay). I will be familiar with all of the curriculum and will have a better idea of what I'm teaching and how to teach it.
The students are great and I really enjoy them. They are funny and very talkative (which also means I am a very strict teacher!) but we have a good time! Here are few pictures, I don't have many, but I will get more soon.






I just got back from a great 4 day weekend vacation and I will post pictures of that soon.