Practicum's almost done...

At the behest of my lady friend, I've remembered that I created this blog, and that there might actually be people following it. So I decided to post here at the end of my first practicum.

It's been a rollercoaster ride these last 4 (and a bit) weeks, with lots of positive moments, and moments where I felt like everything that could go wrong, did. For the most part, I think my classes went fairly smoothly. I have a meeting with Ron (my faculty advisor), Heidi and Adam (my cooperating teachers) on Thursday to discuss how things went. Hopefully I met their expectations, but we'll see on Thursday.

I hope in the next practicum block I get to teach some different classes. These ones have been fun, but I want to get as much experience in various classes as I can, so that I can understand how they react to different types of work, and different methods of presenting the material. What works for grade 9's wouldn't work for grade 12's, for example. But I guess I'll find out in another 2 1/2 months.

I'm excited for winter break. I'm going skiing this year with my parents and Katie, it'll be awesome! I haven't been skiing for several years though, so I think I'll be pretty rusty. The solution for that: tree skiing on the first day! I don't think Katie would appreciate that, though.

Anywho, I have to go get ready for my next class, my prep periosd is almost done.

Graham

Crunch Time!

So it's crunch time in our faculty, and it's been that way for about two weeks. In the last three weeks of classes, I have a final exam, three major assignments, two debates to prepare, five reading reflections, and two or three other minor assignments. That's not to mention the usual amount of readings that are assigned. In short, we've been pretty busy for the last two weeks, and we'll still be busy for this coming week.

I think everyone is about ready to start practicum. It seems like everyone is sick of just talking about teaching and doing assignments related to teaching; they want to actually get out there and try it out. I'm also of this mind; I want to see if I can apply what I've learned in the classroom.

I'm starting to get a cold, which really sucks. At least I didn't get it last week, that would have sucked. That doesn't mean I'm happy about getting it two days before my research paper is due though...

Speaking of which, I'm going to go get some work done on that.

Graham

School assignments are in!

So I finally found out what school I'm teaching at. I'm at St. James Collegiate, which is on Portage just West of Polo Park. I'm super excited! And although I've probably driven past it dozens of times, I had no idea the school was where it is.

There was a wide variety of placements in my cohort(group of people that take courses in the same time slots). There were several for the Grey Academy, which is a Jewish school. There were also at least three people at Miles Mac, and even one at my old school, La Barriere Crossing, in St. Norbert.

There was mostly relief in our class when they were handed out. I don't think people were terribly upset about where they were, they were just happy to know where they were teaching. There were a few exceptions - one student seemed a little concerned about teaching at a Jewish school, and not really having much information on Jewish culture or rituals, which I don't think will really be an issue. Another student was concerned because they were assigned to a school which is within walking distance of their house, which means she'll know many of the students in the school. Again, shouldn't be too big of a deal as long as they maintain a professional attitude in and out of the school.

So now we play the waiting game. We meet our student advisers soon, and after that we have a Monday where we go to the school and meet our cooperating teachers. In all likelihood, we won't even know what class we're teaching or who our cooperating teacher is until this day, which is a week before student teaching starts. This is kind of nerve-wracking! But nothing that we can do about it but wait.

Anyways I'm going to go work on my technical development assignment now.

Graham

Teaching CS thoughts...

So now that I've started most of my assignments, I think that teaching CS might be one of the most applicable-to-real-life courses I've taken. Everything I've done so far, I can think of where I can use it in my teaching. I'm learning a lot in my other courses too, but they deal more with the more intangible parts of teaching. I might be biased towards this because I like computers and can see lots of places where they are useful in teaching, but I think it's good.

I've decided that I need to go down to one shift a week at my job, because it's just getting to be too much. I'd get rid of work completely, but I'd feel bad because they're so short staffed as it is. We'll see though, cause especially once my student teaching starts, I'll need every free minute for myself.

I found out yesterday that Brandon University professors are on strike, which means that Katie has no classes until at least Wednesday. For a program that is only teaching you for 9 weeks, missing one or two classes is a huge deal.

Anyways, just thought I should update my (maybe one or two) readers cause it's been almost a week.

Graham

In between assignments

It's been a few days since my last post, so a few updates...

I finally get to go out and play hockey next week. I'm subbing for a team that my dad's friend plays on, and I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be interesting to see how out of shape I am, though, I haven't played since the spring.

I had a lot of homework this weekend, and I'm going to continue to work on it tomorrow all day. I have several articles, assignments, and reflections to do; I want to try to get all my work for this week done tomorrow, so that I can work on next week's in the evening this week. We'll see what happens though.

I also got around to writing down all my assignment due dates on a calendar too, so I got to see what my workload over the term looks like. It should be not too bad, I never have more than two things due on a day.

I'm still a little nervous about my assignments. I'm not sure exactly what my profs are expecting from some of them, and one of my profs seems particularly anal about certain things. I really don't want to have to drop any courses, I'd like to be done school in two years. We'll see what this week brings.

Anyways, that's all I have for now.

Graham

Just before bed...

Before we get to school updates, a couple more things in my life to mention...

I forgot to mention last time that Katie is going to school at Brandon University, also in the Faculty of Education. She told me today to update my blog so she can see what's going on with me in school while she's away, so yet another reason to update this frequently.

I had teaching CS and cross cultural education today. They were both pretty good, I like how in both those courses it's a pretty relaxed atmosphere. There's still assignments and stuff to do, but as long as you stay caught up with assingments and reading, it's fairly straightforward. I also LOVE the concept of no exams! I only have one exam this term, which greatly takes the load off me in November.

We talked about our assignments in both my classes today, so I have a pretty good idea about what I'm going to have to do for them. I hope what I have in mind is OK....

I've still got the feeling that I'm in over my head for workload. Even though all there is is assignments and reading, there are a LOT of group projects, which I'm not a huge fan of. I hope that everyone in my groups pull their weight, I've had a few experiences with groups that made me quite a grumpy gus.

Anyways, I'm going to bed, I'm up later than I should be.

Graham

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Graham Sereda, and you've come to the right place if you're looking for more information as to who I am, what is happening with me and (hopefully) what students will need to know in my classes.

I'm currently twenty-two years old, live in Winnipeg, and enjoy music, reading and *coughcough* video games. I'm also lucky enough to have a girlfriend (henceforth called "the lady-friend" or by her actual name, I hate the word girlfriend) named Katie. We've been seeing each other for a bit over three years now.

I'm in my fifth year of post-secondary education at the University of Manitoba, where I graduated from the Faculty of Science last spring. This is my first year in the Faculty of Education, and I'm feeling a little freaked out by the amount of work I'm going to have to do for the first two months.

Actually, the reason I'm starting this blog is as part of an assignment for one of my classes. I'm hoping to keep it up after the class is done, because the point of the assignment is to be able to communicate with students and parents. I think this is a great idea, so I'm going to try to keep it current.

Anyways, I should get back to some other homework, as I spent most of the day finishing Metroid Prime, lol.

Graham