Semester Two

The new year brought some new classes. Only 2, but it was enough of a change to make things a bit lively. As I mentioned in my earlier post, we were less than impressed with our Psych professor. I have to admit she won us over very quickly. She was tough, but she was spunky, had a great sense of humour, and really seemed to appreciate our off the wall ideas. This cohort was comprised of arts students, so we were all a bit wacky, and she seemed to enjoy it.

Second semester seemed a bit easier than first semester to me for some reason. I had more classes, more homework, more days I had to be in class, but I was comfortable in the routine, my profs, my classes, the GoTrain (I was now sleeping 90% of the time on the train), and I was feeling a lot more secure in my chosen profession. My professor had noticed the change as well - I was more confident in my skills and more importantly my ability to look like an adult in front of teenagers! (I learned an important trick in second practicum I'll address later on). This had been a real concern of mine at the beginning of the school year.

Classes were moving along fine until a fateful evening in February. I was lying on the couch on a Wednesday evening watching TV and I pushed up off the couch to adjust my position and felt a twinge in my back. I had quite seriously hurt my back about 18 months earlier and it went out quite easily. I immediately iced my back, took some Advil and did some stretches, knowing Thursday was my long day and I needed to be mobile. I went to bed hoping the sleep would help.

I woke up Thursday morning and felt not too bad. I started to walk down the stairs and Chewie, our German Shepherd ran up behind me and knocked me down the stairs, where I of course landed on, my back. There was no way I was going to get to school. I was worried my professors would give me a hard time and emailed them to let them know. From all but one professor I received a ton of support. I took almost 2 weeks off school and the school was fantastic and supportive. It was so nice to be a part of a community that was interested in your well being.

I focused on recuperating and was back in class by the time we got our second practicum assignments. Second practicum started in mid February with a couple of evaluation days and then was the last full week of February, and all of March. This time, I was teaching History.