The Last Fri-Day

Time flies when you’re having fun so it’s best to step back once in a while and think about the days gone by. It’s hard to believe that 7 weeks of teaching practice have come and gone. I still feel that I have to spend a good portion of this weekend preparing lessons for Monday when I no longer have to. My next teaching practice won’t be until March of next year so all I have now until the ‘summer’ vacation is 2 weeks of break followed by 5 weeks of classes at the College of Ed.

Since I was paying attention to details on Friday, the last day went by slowly and was still occupied by routine. The only difference was that I & the other 3 student teachers put out chocolate sweets & savouries for Morning Tea. It’s customary (or quietly implied) for student teachers to put something together for the last Morning Tea as a way of saying thank you to the teaching staff for putting up with us.

Savouries are heated dumplings filled with either meat or vegetables – kind of like those triangular Lebanese spinach pastries. I would have taken a picture of them but since they’re viewed as gold in New Zealand, the second we put them out they were gone. In the end, it only cost $40 for the food, and the St. Thomas staff was grateful for what we did. I hope the sweets influenced my teaching associates in raising my final marks.

As with all last days, I carried on with teaching my final two lessons and handed back any teaching resources I borrowed during my practice. I thanked my associates for putting up with me and giving me much needed advice for my next teaching practice and when I enter the real world of teaching:

1. Position [x3]: Never have your back turned towards the class or any students.
2. Always have a planned lesson.
3. Be authoritative but not authoritarian.
4. Always move around the class; it shows that this is your territory and you can move anywhere.
5. Know students’ names.

I must admit that I’ll miss St. Thomas of Canterbury but since I’m living here for another 9 months I’ll probably pay an unannounced visit in the future. What I’ll remember the most from my time at St. Thomas? The morning briefings, the renowned Pizza Bread from the canteen, being called ‘Mr. D’, the energetic students, the school’s Haka, the interesting teachers, and teaching classes.

During the day, I got word that the student teachers from my program would be converging on a friend’s house in the evening for a BBQ. The catch was that it was a BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat) & a BYOB. Not a problem for me because I was planning to go all out to celebrate the end of teaching practice anyway. So I showed up at the place with a 4 pack of Stella Artois and a $7.40 sirloin steak from Woolworth’s. Everyone else showed up with burgers, sausages, and vegetarian kabobs

Long story short, the ‘Stella!’ was good and I should have bought a second steak because the first one I cooked was really good. As for what the students in my program are doing during the two-week break? Working, travelling, and resting. I was surprised to hear several of them sharing horror stories of having to deal with problem students and rowdy classrooms. Well, glad to see them they’re still alive. By the time the group decided to head downtown, or should I say in town to continue the festivities, midnight had arrived and I was tired from teaching. I decided to break with the group (saying my goodbyes of course) and head back to residence to collapse on my warm bed.

A well-known liquid catalyst that shall remain nameless kept me in my own world as I ‘walked’ home. Because of it, I didn’t take particular notice of the two drunk student streakers who ran by me trying to flag down a taxi while their friends laughed themselves to death on the side of the road.

Fun cheeky times.