Substituting in "T-Division"

     Its been a week and a half since I left "C-School" and I've been missing the classroom so much! Thank goodness I got called in to substitute teach in "T-Division" for today and Thursday. I had never been to the town before so, like I always do, I left waaayyy too early in an attempt to give myself enough time to find my way around. Fortunately I was only 20 minutes early this time and not 30+ like when I visited "C-School".

     The school is a French-immersion school but fortunately I was substituting for the English teacher; which worked out perfectly as my French is quite minimal. The school itself is the epitome of why I LOVE rural schools. I was immediately welcomed by the students, given a tour and met the seven staff members.... yes that includes the administration (altogether I believe there is approximately 45 students from K-8). The Grade 5 class at "C-School" was 28 students! There is definitely something to be said for small class sizes. You can accomplish so much when you only have 7-14 students!

I was first with a Grade 7/8 split class of 9 students. They were in the middle of watching the Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away, after completing a survival unit. Good thing this was one of my favourite movies; I LOVE Tom Hanks. As we watched the movie the students completed a review sheet answering comprehension questions regarding how the survival experience affected the character's personality. It was interesting to see how the students reacted to his relationship with the volleyball, Wilson. Although they all laughed when he spoke with him as if he was real they were all truly saddened for him when he lost Wilson as he left the island. This lead to some really good discussion about the importance of relationships in our society.

I was then with a Grade 4/5/6 split class of 13 students. After a silent reading period they completed a quiz on the novel, Island of The Blue Dolphins. The quiz itself was comprised of 8 multiple choice questions and 3 long answer questions. I was genuinely impressed with the level of the questions being asked; it was not what I expected for a Grade 4/5/6 class. The students, however, seemed to have a very high level of comprehension of the novel and answered the questions with ease. 

All-in-all it was a very easy day for a substitute teacher but I was so happy to be back in the classroom! I can't wait to go back on Thursday :)