Officially a B.Ed. Grad!

Well hello everyone, long time no talk. This may just be one of the last blog posts for this blog I ever write, being as yesterday was my last day of my B.Ed. program. It is honestly incredible how fast the time has flown by. In the next 1000 words or so, I want to share with you 3 things:

• My final practicum in Kindergarten
• My next steps
• My thanks to Bishop’s University

At the start of January, I moved to the West Island of Montreal to complete my 13-week practicum at an elementary school in Pointe-Claire. The school had been recommended by my Director of Practice Teaching, who had graduated from McGill with the principal of the school. The school was also an International Baccalaureate school, meaning they followed the IB Primary Years Programme from kindergarten to grade 6. Two fellow Bishop’s student teachers were there, one of whom was my roommate Vicki. I was paired with the English kindergarten teacher in 1 of the 4 kindergarten classes. She was an amazing associate teacher, with 25+ years of experience under her belt. In fact, she reminded me a lot of my own kindergarten teacher, with her kind nature, ability to remember everyone in the school’s name, and the way in which she made her classroom a happy place to be. Admittedly, when I found out that I was teaching kindergarten, I was very uncertain, because I had never pictured myself as a kindergarten teacher, but I have to say that I fell in love with my class and the kindergarten program.

I began my placement at the start of January and was there until the middle of April. In addition to my associate teacher, Diana, I also worked with her French teaching partner, Suzanne. Unfortunately, Suzanne fell and broke her leg during my first week, so was replaced by a teacher named Jess, who became a good friend and mentor to me throughout my practicum. While there, we studied 3 units of inquiry – celebrations around the world, winter season, and homes around the world. I started teaching in the middle of the celebrations unit, so taught my students about New Year’s and Chinese New Year. We then did a 3-week study on winter, during which we went for a winter walk, migrated around the school like butterflies, put Vaseline on our hands to keep warm in cold water like polar bears and built snowmen to measure in math class. To culminate we made sensory observations books about winter. The students LOVED sharing their books with their peers.

For 6 weeks, we studied homes around the world. For this unit, I created a storyline about a teddy bear traveling around the world. I was inspired to do this when a student talked about how much he missed the elf on the shelf. I took a teddy bear from the classroom and hid him from the classroom. I photoshopped pictures of him in front of different homes around the world and then he emailed the class to tell them where he was staying. The students loved this storyline and they were very excited to come to class everyday and check the email inbox. We studied castles, treehouses, yurts, houseboats, adobe homes, apartment buildings, row houses, caravans, stilt homes and probably some more that I cannot remember. We “visited” the homes on Google Earth and made artistic interpretations of each house. We did a sink or float science experiment to determine which material would be best to make a houseboat with.  We built homes out of Lego, blocks, connects, etc. To culminate the unit, the students made digital scrapbooks of Blue Bear’s trip around the world to share with their peers and friends. I emailed the books home to the parents and received really nice feedback.

As a requirement for Bishop’s, we had to plan a leadership project to do in our schools. So, Vicki, Kirsten and I took on running the school’s winter carnival week in early February. This was A LOT of work, but A LOT of fun! With the help of the teacher planning committee, we organized activities to run each day of the week (luckily, it was only a 4-day week, so we had one less day to plan). With the help of the grade 5 teachers, we formed a student leader committee to help us run the week. With our grade 5s, we planned a kick-off assembly to introduce the carnival, which included the whole school doing the YMCA dance together. The carnival week consisted of:

• Monday – Wear your favourite toque to school!
• Tuesday – Winter Getaway Day! Dress like you’re going on a vacation! All classes were invited to come to a green screen photobooth, dress up with various props and pose for photos. Vacation backgrounds were added to the photos.
• Wednesday – School spirit day and school-wide BINGO game in the gym.
• Thursday – We had planned an Outdoor Activity Day, but due to inclement weather, we were forced to stay inside, so organized dance parties in the gym and had our grade 5s visit younger classrooms to read a book to them by the “fire” (fireplace channel on SMART Board). Marshmallows and pretzels were distributed so students could “roast” marshmallows over the fire.

Some other highlights from my practicum included

• Class trip to the EcomuseuKindergarten Open House
• Watching 2 plays in the gymnasium
• Going to the local high school to watch Beauty and the Beast
• Teacher social at McKibbin’s
• Staff Valentine’s Day potluck
• Staff baby shower for two staff on maternity leave
• Harry Potter theme day
• Attending new teacher interview night at the school board

This practicum was incredible and I left feeling ready to be a teacher. My school was an incredible learning community and I thank everyone for making me feel like a part of the school family. As the saying goes, I definitely learned more from everyone at school than my students learned from me. Fortunately, after 13 weeks, it was not goodbye but see you later, as I was hired on by the school board as a supply teacher so will be able to visit my school again…and will be paid to be there!!

Living in the suburbs of Montreal was equally exciting. As much as my heart pined for Lennoxville some days, I am glad that I challenged myself to move closer to the big city. The hardest part about living in the West Island is that it was a bit of a hike to downtown when taking public transit. However, we made the most of it as we explored our new city. I had a few visitors over the semester, including my former roommate Hannah, my dad and of course, Gavin. I also became really good friends with the other BU student teacher who lived down the road, Kirsten and met some really great student teachers from McGill and Concordia. Here are some of the highlights from living in Montreal: 

• Hiking Mont Royal twice

• Igloofest with Gavin
• Nuit Blanche with Vicki
• Skiing Mont Tremblant with my dad
• Going to the St. Patrick’s Day parade and a Habs game with my dad

• Road trip to Ottawa for Chilifest
• Going to the Biodome with Gavin
• Arkells concert with Bishop’s friends
• Returning to Lennoxville for Grad Formal

• Going to some cool bars downtown (Lockhart, La Belle et le Boeuf, La Distillerie)  

Another highlight on my semester was my March Break trip! I asked for and received plane tickets to Palm Springs for Christmas, so during the first week of March, I flew south to spend a fantastic week under the care of my grandparents. I was spoiled rotten! They live in a beautiful gated community on a golf course and their back porch faces the 18^th hole. I arrived late Sunday night and stayed until the following Saturday. I went shopping with my grandma, swam in the pool, hiked in the mountains, and ran on the trails. I went to a dinner party with my grandparents’ friends, had lunch at the nicest golf club in Palm Springs, went to a fish market for fish and chips, went to the outdoor market, and spent a lot of time in the sun. My mom and my brother came down at the end of the week and our trips overlapped for 1 day, which was a nice treat. I had a wonderful time in Palm Springs and cannot wait to spend all future March Breaks down south (thanks in advance Grandma and Grandpa!!!).

Following the Easter Break, I came back to Lennoxville to wrap up my program. It was bittersweet, knowing these would be the last 2 weeks I spent as a student in Lennoxville, but it was nice to see my B.Ed. friends and hear about their practicum experiences. I was a bit homeless for the 2 weeks, but luckily Jocelyn took me in for a few days and Vicki took me in for the rest. In class, we shared our leadership projects with our peers and shared videos about key events that happened in our practicums. In the middle of the week, I returned to Pointe-Claire to go to my school’s Portfolio Night, in which parents come into school to see all their children’s work. In the IB program, the students each have a binder in which they put samples from each school year and they do not take it home until grade 6, a nice memento to bring home at the end of elementary school. I went in during the school day to say hello to my students and the staff and hand out my business cards (eek!!) so that I can begin my supply teaching career on Monday! I came back to Bishop’s on Thursday to attend the final component of my B.Ed. – Interview Day, in which HR representatives from all the school boards in Quebec were invited to Bishop’s to interview us for teaching positions within their boards. I had 5 interviews, all which went really well. Though I am still planning to go abroad next year, it was a great opportunity to attend the interviews, show off my teaching portfolio and put my name out there! Maybe there will be a job waiting for me when I come back!

 So, what’s up next? Well, today I go back to Pointe-Claire with Vicki where we will continue to live with our lovely landlady, Pearl (who is fantastic by the way!) and work as supply teachers through May and June. Following that, I will go up to camp for July and August, where I am one of the assistant directors. It will be a very different summer this year with the huge camp expansion and utilizing the new property, but change is a good thing and I am looking forward to exploring new opportunities at camp! Then, if all goes well, I will move to London in the fall and work as a supply teacher across the pond! Huge thanks to my friend Anna Collin, who has been such a great support to me as I prepare for my big move! <3 My plan is to stay there for 1-2 years, travel next summer (and during the school year, of course) and then move back to Ontario, but who knows? Maybe I can convince Gavin to move with me and we can stay a little longer!

Before I begin my new journey, I want to say a huge thank you to Bishop’s University. 6 years ago, I did not even know this place existed, but my life truly changed forever on Saturday, October 15^th, 2011 when I stumbled across the Bishop’s booth at the Ontario University Fair in Toronto. Their booth was actually in the hallway, not even in the big room with the other universities, and to be honest, we almost walked right by it. However, as I’m sure I said before, my mom had just finalized her master plan of attack to conquer the fair – which was that we would go to each booth, ask if they had concurrent education, and depending on the answer, either move on or ask some questions and take a view book – and Bishop’s was the first booth we came across. And the rest was history. I was intrigued by the program, booked a campus tour and fell in love. Now, 6 years later, I still feel that this was the best decision I have ever made.  

So, thank you Bishop’s University for everything. Thank you for the incredible education I am leaving with, for helping me to earn the 2 degrees that will enable me to pursue my dreams in the not-so-distant future. Thank you for the incredible friends I have made, friendships that I hope will last forever. Thank you for the opportunity to go on exchange to Tours, France and experience an entirely new world (and by consequence, bring our new housemate to WP!).  Thank you to all my professors, associate teachers and supervisors who supported me on my journey to become a teacher. Thank you to my housemates and my friends who were by my side every step of the way. Thank you to Lennoxville and 27 WP for being my home away from home for the past 5 years. Thank you for Bishop’s, for staying true to your promise that I would be a student, not a number. Thank you for instilling loads of purple pride in my heart and showing me why I will forever and always rather be a gaiter. Thank you, Bishop’s, for everything.

And finally, thank you to YOU, for reading this blog and following my life at Bishop’s for the past 5 years. I have loved sharing my stories with everyone who has read this blog, from those who accidentally clicked on this link to those that read every time I posted. I may not have inspired you all to study at Bishop’s, but I hope you enjoyed following my journey as much as I enjoyed living it. Best wishes, good luck and thank you!