At age 44, I fulfilled one my childhood dreams. I became a schoolteacher.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I needed something to fill the oodles of extra time I had on hand (insert winky face) or that I was lacking a challenge in my marketing career path. It\u2019s just that I\u2019ve always wanted to be a teacher and everything sort of fell into place at that magical moment. The powers that be agreed I had enough experience and education to teach and mailed me an official certificate which I now proudly display on my office wall. In fact, I\u2019m officially certified to teach (among other things) marketing and web development to kindergarteners.<\/strong><\/span> So, if you know of any five-year-old\u2019s who might be interested\u2026.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s how I find myself with eight weeks of experience as a teacher. I like to think of myself as an expert already with over-flowing insight and wisdom. \u201cYou know what I\u2019ve found to be a life-saving teaching hack?\u201d<\/p>\n Just kidding. I know very little.<\/p>\n Thankfully, they started me off easy with just nine students (all girls) in grade 11. Last week, I finished writing report cards for the first time and I can\u2019t exactly commiserate with the other teachers who have 70+ comments to write. I tried, but they just rolled their eyes at me.<\/p>\n My students are such fun, dedicated learners who are more than happy to help me become a better teacher.<\/p>\n Case in point\u2014after I told them how much fun I had writing their report card comments (insert winky face again), they decided to give me a \u201cnew teacher\u201d report card. It seemed appropriate. Who better to assess my growing expertise and skill as a teacher than my own students?<\/strong> Little did I know what was to come. The list of \u201ccompetencies\u201d that I was excelling or failing at grew on the white board and notes with official comments started showing up on my desk.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a pleasure having you teach us this term. I am very proud of how far you have come since the beginning of the semester. Your bubbly and peppy personality makes for an always exciting class. I am always pleasantly surprised with what we are doing in class each day, everything from building Lego and the elephant nose game, to actually learning. There is room for improvement when it comes to accepting my ideas, however. Most teachers would say \u2018no idea is a bad idea.\u2019 Instead, your response is to tear up my sticky notes and throw them in the garbage. That created a lot of damage for me. But we can move past our indifferences and appreciate each other as people. Another piece of advice I would give to you, or any other new teacher is to learn student slang PROPERLY, (for example \u2018W Violet\u2019 and \u2018L Mrs. Kieneker\u2019) Trust me\u2014it\u2019s a life changer.<\/strong><\/span> In short, I look forward to continuing to learn from you the rest of the year.\u201d\u2014 Violet<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cGive us candy.\u201d\u00a0\u2014 Cynthia<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cW students, L discipline. Could improve by disliking pickles.\u201d \u2014 Kiera<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy only advice is if a student comes in 2.3 seconds late to class, maybe don\u2019t make them get a late slip. That\u2019s a waste of paper and ink, not to mention all that leg power to walk to the office and back. Sincerely, your favourite student. P.S. We need more stickers.\u201d \u2014 Truly<\/em><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n The only question I have now is whether I need my principal to sign this and return it. I really don\u2019t want Mike to read it though\u2014he may not ask me back for next year.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll just tuck this away and not share it with anyone (insert winky face).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At age 44, I fulfilled one my childhood dreams. I became a schoolteacher. It\u2019s not that I needed something to fill the oodles of extra time I had on hand (insert winky face) or that I was lacking a challenge in my marketing career path. It\u2019s just that I\u2019ve always wanted to be a teacher […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,35],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-6256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth-mindset","category-secondary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6256"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=6256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Starting Off Easy<\/h2>\n
Mrs. Kieneker\u2019s First Term Report Card<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
\n\n
\n COMPTENCY<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n GRADE<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n EXPLANATION<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Giving students time to sleep in class<\/td>\n F<\/td>\n Nap time should be added to schedule<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Using teen slang correctly<\/td>\n B<\/td>\n \u00a0Showing improvement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Staying focused during class<\/td>\n C+<\/td>\n But you tell funny stories<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Getting students\u2019 names right<\/td>\n F<\/td>\n Needs improvement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Handing out stickers<\/td>\n A<\/td>\n \u00a0Could hand out more<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Teaching<\/td>\n I<\/td>\n Insufficient evidence<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Using all of the school ink to print colourful posters<\/td>\n A+<\/td>\n Our classroom looks amazing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Use of sarcasm<\/td>\n A+<\/td>\n As if<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Laughing loudly and often<\/td>\n A+<\/td>\n Often described as a cackle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n COMMENTS<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n