Post Practicum One

I completed my first practicum on a Friday in November, and the following Tuesday had to be back in regular classes. If there was any time I felt like I needed a break, this was it. My Tuesday classes were a bit low, but it was my Thursday class where I really saw the effects of the practicum on other students. We had less than a month left before we broke for the holidays and our class size seemed to be down by almost half. There were people with colds, the flu, bronchitis, you name it. Our professor told us this was pretty normal actually. Not only was it cold and flu season, but we had been exposed to so many more people than we normally were, and teenagers aren't always the cleanest of creatures. With so many germs flying around and our immune systems depleted because of lack of sleep and too much work, we were all quite susceptible to so many things!

Many of us powered through and continued going to classes. I really don't remember missing that many classes before Christmas but I remember wishing I had some days. Because I was coming from Hamilton and commuting to Toronto, just getting to and from school was a 4 hour ordeal every day, so that alone took a lot out of me.

December 13 - 15 there was a conference they called the Professional Preparation Conference (PPC). There were workshops offered every week, all for more money. The school really emphasized the importance of going to these extra conference, so I signed up for a handful of them - only what I could afford really. One thing I made sure I signed up for was the PPC because we kept hearing how fantastic it was. Now one of the problems with OISE and I imagine most schools in general are their overuse of acronyms. On the schedule for the PPC the acronyms were plentiful. I recognized a lot of them, but not all. This proved to be a problem.

The first part of the PPC was on Wednesday and it started in the afternoon. I arrived in time to sit on the steps and listen to a man give us tips on cover letters, resume's and interviews. I don't remember his name or his qualifications, but he was selling a book as well of course. He did have a lot of great information, and it went well with the booklet that we had been given prior to the PPC. I did get quite a bit out of that. The next session was with our cohort (comprised of all the people in my TES, Pysch, and School and Society class) and two Principal's from the TDSB (Toronto District School Board). One of my classmates did a mock interview with them. She dressed the part and answered all their questions. It was fantastic to hear the questions, but her answers really were irrelevant to me, and I found myself wanting to hear more from the Principals and less from the student. This wasn't her fault or anyone's really, just the way it was structured. I did learn some valuable things in hearing the questions though.

Thursday I showed up bright and early for a conference with an acronym I didn't recognize, just to discover it was for the Catholic board students only, which I was not. So I went for coffee with a friend who had also made the same mistake and killed some time. The conferences on Thursday were terrible. I took nothing from the day but incredible frustration directed towards a school that so far I had really loved and gained much from.

Friday I was ready to just stay home but I was afraid to miss something important. Representatives for the different boards of education were all there to meet and talk to, so I thought it would be important to be there. I got the information for all the boards I was interested in (there were 7 of them in total) and came home. I think I was there less than an hour, maybe 2. I came home with a loot bag to go through with tons of information to read over.

This finished off the first term for me, and I settled in for a nice relaxing Christmas. As I've mentioned before this is the first time I haven't worked during school, so this was the first Christmas I've had off in years. It was fantastic. I loved getting all ready for Christmas, attending the parties, church functions, and doing visiting without worrying about getting back for work.

Before we broke for Christmas I met my Pysch professor. She came into our TES class and introduced herself as we'd be taking Psych in the new year. We were less than impressed. She seemed a bit strict - more than I'd had in university thus far, and to make matters worse, she assigned homework, and the purchase of a book before Christmas. The class hadn't even started yet! I have to admit we were ready to tar and feather her by the time classes started up again in January.