Wow! Time has just flown by! It’s so hard to believe that it is our last week on Campus. The time has just flown by especially as we have been doing all of the last minute wrap up things in our Education Assistant courses. We are in the middle of our last course right now. This last class we have is how to support ESL/ELL students. It is quite interesting and covers those students that immigrate to Canada and those who arrive as refugees. We have been learning different strategies to help them both academically and culturally.
Last week we had a body mechanics workshop where we learnt all about how to safely transfer a person who is wheelchair bound so that we would not injure them or ourselves. That was really interesting. Part of the course was a lecture and part of the course was hands on. That was followed by a sensory awareness workshop. In that workshop we got to learn more about how sensory difficulties can affect a student. The instructor had us put on 3D glasses, played some white noise, read us a story and we had to answer 3 questions on it. I didn’t even get 1 right. It was amazing how hard it was to do with all the different stimuli coming at you and not being able to block any of it out. It really gave me a good insight into what it is like for some of the students that we will be working with who struggle with this on a daily basis. It really helped me to have a glimpse into what they are struggling with and some strategies that we can use to help them cope with these challenges.
This week we also got to have our Practicum Preparation and meet our Mentors for our Practicums. Some of us have one mentor for our entire practicum and some of us have two. I have two. We learnt how we will be graded and what our assignments will be whilst we are on practicum. What the expectations are for us and the host schools. It’s so exciting. It’s scary at the same time to think that next week we will be at our first host school. It’s been really hard to focus on my schoolwork in this last class as everything I have been working for is so close now.
We have also been doing a class on resumes, and cover letters. Later this week we actually get to do some mock interviews. I think that is also making this all so real. We are at the end of our Education Assistant program. Stenberg College has done a great job of preparing us so far. I’m really looking forward to starting my practicum next week and telling you all about the adventures that it brings. I know it will be different than the classroom and a chance to show all that we have learnt.
I’m looking forward to sharing with you all about my Practicum adventures. Stay tuned.
Check out a video of our Education Assistant Diploma Program.
