Goodbye Glenview :(

Well, its over. No more going in to face new challenges and realize limitless possibilities every morning. I must admit I am quite sad to be leaving and am worried how I will react to be being back at OISE fulltime.

My last week was amazing. I really feel that I have built solid relationships with the faculty at Glenview and my fellow TC's. Early morning pickups will always be my favourite memory of my Practicum. Such an incredible opportunity to share, make suggestions, and just feel that there were others who were going through the wide range of emotions that I did.

Most imprtantly I feel that I made a significant contribution to the lives of my students. I was amazed and really touched by the reaction of all of my students to the news that I would be leaving Glenview. I got so many nice cards and a basketball signed by my team. Some of the students that I had spent extra time with were especially grateful. Really an unbelievable experience to know that you had such apositive effect!!!!!!

One of the most imprtant things I learned this week was the importance of an effective transition. As I had been teaching pretty much the full slate of classes my AT needed to be brought up to speed, specifically, about the progress of all our students and all my marking needed to be done. It was vital that I did this because there were several issues that I discovered while marking that are crucial for my AT to know. A couple of examples- several students had yet to submit assigned work, and I had devised special programs/expectationss for students that were experiencing difficulties that my AT needed specifics about. Also, I had a set of twins in one of my English classes that had essentially plagarised their work, by simoply splitting the work at home and copying each others work....verbatim!!! It was also really important that I leave my AT thinking that I was responsible and had finished and met of all his expectations.

All in all this was an unbelievable experience that has gone a long way to reassuring me that my decision to go to OISE and become a teacher was the right one. I have never felt such a sense of purpose before and look forward to the next challenge.

Simon