Pre-Internship - Orientation

Our orientation was only one day, which began at 7 am. We arrived at the school and, after getting slightly lost, met our co-op. Jazz started at 7:30. Many students were late (many by only a few minutes). It seemed as though the co-op had been struggling with many of these students to get them there early and ready to start at 7:30. She explained to them that this is a credit course and that they are required to be on time. Yet, she didn’t really stress over it. The kids seemed like good kids that just had trouble getting up in the morning. They are the good kids that enjoying being in band.

The jazz band was at a fairly good level, but it seemed as though the early morning rehearsal was affecting their playing and attention. The reason for morning classes is because there is so much to do in the afternoon with other extra-curricular activities that the class has to be in the morning (also because it is a credit class).

The next class was Psychology 20. This was our first (and only) class in a typical setting with our main co-op. We just watched her teach. This was a fairly typical experience.

Then we went to drama class. This class was interesting and reminded me of the drama class I was in during high school. Half of the class was composed of students who genuinely enjoy drama, acting and being outgoing and spontaneous. The other half were people who needed a credit and thought drama would be easy (and they got really aggravated when it was difficult). Many kids walked in late and didn’t participate right away, or without being asked several times. After they were all settled the students seemed to get better. Many students in this class seemed to have behaviour issues. They didn’t seem to like us. It was almost as though they made an assumption that because we are teachers we are mean. This makes me think that teachers have openly and obviously made judgements about them in the past.

After this class we had homeroom. Our co-op told us that homeroom was introduced about 5 years ago by Regina Public Schools, and that almost all of the high schools do it. The students go to home room with approximately 15 other students and one teacher. The teacher reads announcements, collects fees/notes and deals with small disciplinary measures including late books and nag (similar to detention?). The group of students stay with the same teacher for four years. When they graduate the teacher gets a new set of grade 9 students. This process seems like it would be useful to the grade nines, who are new to the school, and the grade 12s who have a lot of administrative things to take care of with graduation and post-secondary application. As for the grade 10s and 11s (who we had), the period seemed to be a waste of time. There were always students missing and very rarely were they all paying attention. It is basically a time to catch up on missed events both regarding school and peer relationships. To some students it was a time to wake up and eat a snack.

After a prep period it was time for band. The students were very interested in us. It was very interesting to watch the class from the other perspective. You see things completely differently. You see how annoying certain things are and you feel bad for the dumb stuff you did in high school. But I also saw the enjoyment the teachers got from working with the students and this was amazing.