short term placement

So, for two weeks between our retreat at arden and the time we leave we were required to have a short term co-op placement. My short term placement was at Dundas Calvin Christian School, where I worked as a teacher's assistant in Mr. Bezuyn's grade six class.

On the first day I just got thrown right into it, as for the first half of the day i had to mark speeches of children that i had barely even met. I didn't really know how hard to mark these speeches so for my grade most of them did extremely well.

I would definately say that i had forgotten how different grade school really was from high school. On the second day i was listening to my ipod at break where we weren't doing anything and i was told to take it off, i did. Two days later i was listening to my ipod again, this time it was at recess, and again i wasn't allowed to do that. So that was a shocker to me, i mean i though recess was our time.

Meghan van hoeve was also at DCCS with me, she got the good grades though, she taught grades one and three. During lunch and recess i would walk down to her classroom and just hang out with her for a bit. Repeated amounts of times were we asked if we were dating, they just don't understand that guys and girls can be friends without dating i guess. By the end of my time at DCCS i was also helping out with the grade one class on top of my grade six class. I would sit there and play the game "memory" with one of the students, AJ, and grudgingly i would have to say that he beat me. That child has an amazing memory for a grade one kid. He almost double the amount that i got. I would also sit in the hallway and the kids would read to me which was fun, because i remember doing exactly that when i was in grade one.

It is kind of weird being in the grade one class though, where i stand at 6 foot 1 inch and they mostly stand at about half that. I stood next to another student, Caleb, and he actually only came up to my waist.

One of the most fun times at the grade school was winter enrichments. I helped out with "outdoor adventures." Winter enrichments is where the students are designated an activity and every friday for the afternoon they go do these activities. So on the friday that i helped out with this we played outdoor games, which after the first game of capture the flag it ended up being a "lets tackle Mr. Ben game". I would like to state that they only got me down three times, one was by an adult, who only was able to take me down once with kids holding my legs. It was like an afternoon of snow wrestling grade six students. It was so much fun.

So i would like to thank Dundas Calvin Christian School for allowing me to do my short term placement there as well as the students i helped, and of course Mr. Bezuyn. I enjoyed my time there but now its time for me to take off, literally, to Belize.

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