Because I am a Teacher…

My classmates have been blogging about the challenge of keeping up with the required workload of our ECMP355 course.  Thursday, morning I woke to find a message that one of my assignments that I posted to my blog did not link.  I still cannot get that little project to work.  Friday, feeling unwell, when my Mentor offered the option to take a day off from Skyping with his class, I took it.  I listened to my mother’s advice, that a good teacher also knows her limitations…  Ha, well that might have just come back to get me… 

 Today, I ran around getting ready for a soccer tourney in Swift Current and zipped over to the Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Interpretive Center to chat with the biologist about the Voicethread I plan to create for Bill, my mentor’s students, and is the final project for ECMP class.  I was home before 3:00 p.m.  I sat down to start blogging and my phone rang.  The Superintendent of Student Support Services for Prairie South School Division was on the line, calling to offer me a one-month teaching position.  Teaching.  Really teaching.  Teaching one-on-one with a ten-year old student. 

 My head started to spinning thinking about my other commitments:

1.  The ECMP355 Course.

2.  The grade ten student that I am currently volunteer teaching at John Chisholm on Thursday mornings so that he can earn his grade ten art credit.  Those mornings we are in the studio.  We are already in need of more studio time, and we loose another week when my grade ten student is gone camping for a week.  I need to spend a lot of time at John Chisholm this coming week.   

3.  And Bill’s class, the class that will work on and interact with my “What is a Habitat? Owls and Urbanization” final project that needs to be ready for the 8^th of June.  This coming week must be production week. 

So here I am sitting in Swift Current, typing on my laptop and thinking about grade four content-appropriate novels for a grade one reading level.  I’m thinking of launch lessons for Owls on line and perhaps Owls with my grade four student.  I’m thinking of bubble gum art and our noon hours in the cafeteria.  I’m thinking that this is my first real job ever.  I’m thinking about where I’ll start Monday with my grade four student and where I hope my final project will lead Bill’s students in two weeks.  I’m thinking that if I don’t sleep I might have a chance of getting some of the work done.  I’m thinking something has to give, but usually, I get it all done and I get it all done well.  I love being busy.

I love learning on the fly.  I love being challenged and I love resilient youth.  I know my final project must, because of time-constraints, become something different than what I have originally envisioned.  But that’s OK.  As the Superintendent was sharing about the student, and his needs, I began to think about the technological tools that are in my teaching tool belt now, tools that might be helpful for a student whose reading comprehension and decoding skills differs by three years. 

If I wasn’t feeling the crunch of this class before that three p.m. phone call, I certainly am now.  I need more time.  I need a full day with my grade ten student this week.  I need two weeks in the production of my project for Bill’s students.  I need a week to gather and plan for my grade four student. 

This is reality.  I start Monday, 8:50 a.m.  Ready, Set, Go.  I’m a teacher!