Almost the end

Opps, it has been over a week since my last post! The main reason for my tardiness is that I have been really, really busy! Or to use a simile I have been as busy as a bee with a bum full of honey!

Tomorrow is my final day of teaching in Room 15, I still have one more week at Collingwood Area School, but next week I will take more of a back seat roll and have a wander around the other junior classrooms and see how its done there. I will still be in and out of Room 15 and will be finishing off my "Kiwis for kiwi" topic unit in the afternoons.

I have had some lessons go well (never as well as I hope), and some truly disastrous ones, like today, when my lecturer was watching... but to be honest it is the ones that go badly that you learn the most from, it gives you a chance to reflect, see where you went wrong and what you would change next time. I am in awe of my mentors Pip and Ali, and I want to be just like them when I grow up, if I still have their passion and patience in 20 years then I will be happy.

I am getting ridiculously sad at the thought of leaving! :( Today I went to tap dancing lessons to watch my niece Zoe and then I stayed on to watch some of the girls in my class to have their lesson, all I can say is WOW, I have never, and will never be a tap dancer! When I arrived, two of the girls from Room 15 spotted me and called out "Hi Miss Oates", it made me feel like a celebrity, or some other important person! It was awesome, they were so excited that I came to watch and I was happy to be there, these children have welcomed me with open arms (some literally), and have trusted me with their education, their stories and their pride, I am honoured to have this trust. This has been my best placement so far and I truly do not want to leave. As much as some of them drive me crazy sometimes (I am sure all you parents will understand), they also make me smile and laugh everyday. I am bowled over by their interest in learning, and their willingness to work hard, they ask for help when it is needed and they take pride in their work when they have done a good job, this is the highlight of being a teacher, when you see their face light up.

It is also almost the end of my degree, one more placement and then in a few months I will be hunting for a job, what a daunting thought. This time next year I could have a classroom full of bright young minds that I am partially responsible for shaping, what a terrifying idea, and yet I cannot wait! I could be anywhere in the country, far from family and friends, it really is beginning to dawn on me that my life for the last few weeks is my foreseeable future!

I am exhausted and overwhelmed by the idea of this job but I also can not wait to have my own class, I hope that I can help shape some children into the wee superstars that this class is. I am in love with this country school, home really is where the heart is.