New School and Musical

Yesterday, I went to go see a brand new school that opened in September since my first practicum teacher was working there. She showed me around the school when I arrived. During the tour, I noticed how this building had really wide hallways (or maybe the students were so small that the hallways seemed wide...) Either way, the school was so nice and clean. After the tour, I went into her classroom and observed students working on an interdisciplinary inquiry project. They were making Ruberg Machines (the one where one thing leads to another thing, leads to another thing... like the one where you roll a marble down the thingamobable... I think you get the drift!) They were integrating science (simple machines), math (data collection), language arts (poems about their work) and social studies (renaissance period). I was amazed at how complex some of their projects were and how they had really efficient problem solving skills. For example, one student told my first practicum teacher during his interview (they were interviewed on their project) how it took him many tries to get the marble down a spiralling ramp by making adjustments like adding a wall (so the marble doesn't fall off the ramp), or angle the spiral to slow down the ball. I remember standing there amazed that students could come up with these things! An engineer in the making I say!

I pretty much spent my entire morning observing many different projects. All were simply amazing. I couldn't think of one project that lacked some kind of "amazing factor".

As for today, I went back to my second practicum teacher's school (FFCA... even though I call it my third practicum. It's my second assigned practicum teacher). They had dress rehearsals for Wonderland... which I was supposed to play in. (Still feel slightly guilty about it). From what I remember, there are 4 different casts (2 grade 11 casts and 2 grade 12 casts). Today, I got to witness one of the grade 11 casts perform. Of course, there were some glitches but overall, I was very impressed with the musical. It's amazing how busy young students have the time to come together and practice when they have finals/diplomas coming up! The band, (consisting of the piano, drum set and bass guitars) did an excellent job accompanying the singers. I have to give props to my replacement (a student that I swear looks like somebody in my former Bio class) for learning the pieces quickly!

And that's that!