Don't Worry, Be Happy!!

Sorry, I thought I published this post but it seems like it was just saved!! This is supposed to be for the third week!! !

Monday, November 14th, 2011
Starting on the first day of my third week, I realized something small. I realized how much students appreciate when a teacher admits they made a mistake! As I was teaching my math lesson, I had realized that I made a mistake on something I explained to them on the Friday. As I starting taking up some of the answers in class, I had a few students with their hands up, only to realize that they had all noticed a small mistake when I was explaining something which had them making errors on the final answers.

At first I did seem a bit embarassed. I quickly appologized for this mistake and went back to clarify what had to be done with NO mistakes. At the end of the day, it's important to note that, even teachers make mistakes. Feeling a little off about it because I still felt a little embarassed, I nervously went about my next lesson in the afternoon. I guess the students noted my nervousness, to them me being nervous = odd, crazy, WHERE'S MISS D types of feelings I guess because one at a time the started telling me that it's okay to make mistakes because it shows I'm human and puts them at ease to know that everyone makes mistakes and that no one is perfect. Indeed this is true, and I guess at times as an adult hoping to become a teacher, at times you may lose sight of this and try to be perfect, but in fact it is very important that we all make mistakes because it is the only way we learn!!

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011.
The night before, I had prepared a great religion lesson for the kids. Filled with activities and a lot of discussion. Of course, things don't always go as planned. I had a lesson about the Ten Commandments and as we discussed the first three, we started having a conversation about what it meant to believe only in one God.

Now, remember these are grade 6 students...as debates were being had back and forth about different religions, one student asked, "What about if we have parents with different religions, does it mean we are not being faithful to our God even though we consider ourselves Catholic?". As I smiled, ready to explain, another student quickly responded, "Listen, I don't think what the commandment is saying is to not believe in more than one thing, I mean in many situations if we have parents with different religions then you cannot betray the other commandment that you have to honour your mother and father which means if they want you to equally celebrate both religions then you must. And it also doesn't mean that you cannot just believe more strongly in one then the other because it also depends on what your parents want for you as a child, BUT as you grow up although you shouldn't turn your back on your faith, if you feel more strongly connected to one over the other then maybe that was your calling from God. Now, as for the commandment, I truly think what God is saying, is that we should not worship fake God's like money and material things like cars, big houses, luxury, nice clothes, etc because those things are not God's they are not real, they are just things we may attain based on status...."

My jaw dropped and at that moment I sat back blown away from the words that came from this students mouth! I couldn't believe how well she explained that, I think better than me!! From there more conversation broke out and it was the best teaching moments for me because I saw how things can turn out for the best sometimes with no lesson plan needed. At this point I also saw how many times kids are underestimated based on their ability to comprehend and really, they know more than we think!!!