Thursday, November 15, 2012

Switching to the Fast Lane

M. call me at 9 am this morning. His mom is severely ill, last that I heard. She may have passed away last night - I didn't ask. He took off for the south, so I've taken over his classes for today and tomorrow. It was a full-teaching day, all four periods - I somehow made it through - all the Sec Vs know me and I taught last period math as well. The Sec IV kids are really good, well-behaved kids.

The vice-principle, E., is asking me to take over the classes for now, and possibly until M. comes back. He might be gone for 3 weeks, absolute worst case scenario until Christmas. This takes away for prep time. I am requesting another staff member to be sent up but I don't think this will happen, due to budget restrictions. It's a stressful scenario for everyone as R., the math teacher, left yesterday. My coworker, C., will be gone as well. There is no math department! A., who is working with extracurricular activities at the school, has been requested to fill in but has no background in math. The new teacher from Parry Sound, G., will have his schedule adjusted as well.

Three periods of science went great although I was tired by last period math. I ended the lesson early and gave them some riddles to solve. They loved it so I need to find more. These seem like great riddles to use. They break up the monotony of the day and it gets everyone excited. I might put one out at the beginning of class - the early birds get to stay stimulated as we wait for others - or at the end of class - keeps them in the room so they don't try to wander out.

The boys in Secondary V solved this one. Do you know the answer?

Question: What goes around the world but stays in a corner?
Hint: Something you would find at the post office.

1 comment: