Substituting in "T-Division" 3

     On Friday I was able to have another substitute teaching day in “T-Division”! I have already had some experience with the division as I was able to substitute teach in an English classroom and in a Grade 2/3 classroom in their French Immersion school a few weeks ago. This time, however, I was in a K-12 school only about 15 minutes from our house. I was so excited because this is a school that I might be applying for a job in next spring! (I have actually even applied to do one of my student teaching placements in this school for next year but I am still waiting to hear back about that.) The teacher I was in for is responsible for some Phys-Ed classes as well as some French classes.


I wasn’t able to take pictures during the class, this image is from Creative Commons.

 The teacher had left a straight-forward lesson plan for the day’s activities that included different variations of fast-pitch outside on the school’s baseball diamonds. Unfortunately it had poured the night before and it was still overcast and misty outside all day too! Here is where some of my on-the-spot thinking had to come in. Now for those who know me know that I am far from athletic. I was one of those students that didn’t want to participate in gym class and when I did I was pretty clumsy! A few years ago I probably wouldn’t have even been willing to substitute teach in a gym class. My fiance, however, is quite different from me and grew up his whole life being an award-winning hockey, football and baseball player. (He even had some offers for football and hockey after high school but chose to go to university instead). He is now in the Education Faculty with me after majoring in Phys-Ed. Thanks to him, and all of the low organized games he has taught me, I was able to pull out 5 different versions of dodge-ball that I modified for the Grade 2, 3 and 6 classes that I had throughout the day! The students were so excited because it was variations that they had not played before and they loved it! I was really pleased with how well everything went and the students were amazing.
*I left a note for the teacher letting her know that we had to change the plan because of the weather and let her know exactly what we did during the class.

I only had one French class during the day with a Grade 7 class and it was interesting. For a long time now I have regretted not continuing with French classes through school. Although different divisions do things differently, our school division had the option of having a French Immersion School or a regular English school. I was enrolled in regular programming but still had mandatory French classes from Grade 4 to Grade 7. After this you had the option of continuing in French until Grade 12 if you chose but it was an elective, not mandatory. I, unfortunately, chose not to continue. Since leaving high school I have regretted not learning French and over the last little while I have been thinking more and more about taking classes to learn it. I’ve been looking into the AIM Language Learning program even more since I was introduced to it during student teaching. Back to our class… The Grade 7 class was more or less self-managed as I was not able to deliver a lesson in French (which the teacher knew when I was booked). The students were working on an assignment that required them to survey ten of their classmates, in French, about their hobbies and their collections if they had one. Using this information they then completed a worksheet that had them compile their results and compare them to others. I found that many of the students did not have an interest in French which broke my heart because I know that some of them will regret it later on like I have. I am wondering how to make learning another language desirable?

     All-in-all it was a really great experience! After classes were done for the day I was even able to meet the Social Studies teacher and introduce myself in case I do get to student teacher there in the future or if he needs a substitute teacher one day!