we didn't have school on monday, so the week started off tuesday with a regular day at the high school. except the days are shorter this week too because there are student-teacher interviews each morning from 8:30-9AM. next week, tuesday, the students don't come to school as there are parent-student-teacher interviews (also called 3-way interviews).

tuesday morning we observed rhonda's classes and worked on prep for our own classes as well. i will be teaching accounting 10 this week for 3-4 days, and next monday start teaching information processing 30 for probably a week. it's a unit on databases.

i'm feeling really comfortable at the school now, after my freaking out and questioning last week about whether i'm in the right place pursuing the right thing. i think i am. i guess today, when i teach my first lesson, i'll really get a better idea of how it feels. but i'm not putting all my apples in one basket. that is to say that if today doesn't go well, i'm not going to catastrophize that my teaching career is over because i've already failed before i've begun. i got a bit of a taste of failure at the previous high school we were at.

wednesday we went through some pre-conferencing with rhonda. she read over my lesson plan and alerted me to things the students will struggle with, have questions about, etc. she also has been super supportive with offering overheads that she already has, using her resources and guiding us along the way. this element was missing from our balfour experience: safety. with rhonda, i feel safe to make mistakes because i feel like she's rooting for me and that we have a relationship where i can try things, and she will be there to support me if i fail (or if i succeed!) without me worrying that i'm ruining my reputation or that of the university.

i've decided that i'm going to use bribery with the students today. just being honest. with being at the school such a short period of time, i more have the status of a substitute teacher. everyone knows that's not a good status: no rapport with the students, no power! i don't have my own classroom and my expectations to communicate, instead i'm walking into someone else's classroom, which is a challenge. so i bought a lot of candy on tuesday, and put it in a big glass jar. it's currently sitting at the front of rhonda's classroom. when i brought it out yesterday and set it on the desk for 5th period, it was the talk of the town! i'm going to use it sparingly, to reward behaviour i like and honestly, use it to my advantage. if i have to externally motivate the students in this way for a few days, i'm okay with it. if it will help me to manage them better, i'm okay with that, too. then i can focus more on teaching and less on trying to get them to be quiet. this is going to be a challenge, as there are 35 students in the class!

we also had a visitor yesterday. our advising professor came to check in. it was good to see a familiar face and chat briefly about how things are going. university classrooms already seem miles away with our balfour experience and now the 3 week block.

i teach in 5th period today, so will document later how it went!