From Practicum to Iqaluit

Hi Sarah,

Haven't you been busy while I have been procrastinating on responding??  My best excuse is my 10 days in Santiago, where they kept me very busy (and my best friend in Australia turned up at a different university, so we got to have two dinners together--amazing coincidence!).

Wow, three associate teachers--I assume that meant 3 different preps. Did you get 3 different summative reports?? It is so clear that people learn SO much from practicum experiences. That's why it baffles me that my colleagues don't want to let you have more weeks teaching in schools.

Yes, marking tests by levels is really complicated. And eventually you have to turn all those levels into a number?? You have to wonder if this is progress (or am I just too old to change my ways?). I'm glad you learned that it doesn't pay to put off marking a test (and I should not have put off writing comments on some people's posters--at least yours was the first I looked at!). The longer you wait, the harder it is for students to remember what it was like to try to answer the questions on the test.

I'm very pleased that you can say you like teaching both math and physics! WELL DONE on asking the students for comments. Very nice that some of the comments matched those from your associates.

THANK YOU for giving me the link to your blog from Iqaluit. Imagine returning home! Imagine a (small) town where water and sewage come and go by transport (hopefully not in the same truck!). You must be having an amazing experience!! And learning the Alberta curriculum as well. Teaching to the test probably makes it harder to focus on key concepts; I'll be very interested to hear more about your teaching, as well as your cultural adventures!

Keep warm!
Tom