Hi Mat

Mat, say hello to everyone. 

I was assigned my first practicum this week. I got a grade 6 class in a small suburban town about 10km outside of The City. Very upper-middle class, very Anglo. I think it’s going to be a nice place to learn the basics of how to teach, before being introduced to all the different aspects of super diverse classrooms (I’m sure that will come with my future practicums. At least I hope so; I do want to experience teaching in a culturally and socioeconomically diverse classroom.). 

My associate teacher seems like a very nice woman, though very precise with high expectations, which is perfect. Though my practicum doesn’t start until Monday, I went in for a half-day today to check out the classroom and meet the kids and teacher. The kids were pretty underwhelmed about my presence, but they’re in grade 6, how excited are they going to get. 

I don’t know how I’m going to like grade 6. It definitely is not my first choice of grades; those kids are way too old for my liking. But when I was doing my placements for ECE I said the same thing going in to my school-age placement (I thought for sure I was meant to be a toddler teacher), and I ended up loving school-age. We’ll see. 

Anyways, about my mat. Mat, where are you? 

There he is. 

This is a cutie little welcome mat I bought and customized for literally $2.00. See: 

Thanks Dollarama! 

I simply bought a regular old mat from Dollarama, made a stencil on the word processing program on my computer, printed it on regular printer paper, cut it out, and painted it with acrylic paint. Super easy! 

I didn’t take pictures of the process because it was really too easy, but here’s what I can show you. 

I cut out the stencil using an exacto knife. I then sprayed the back of the paper with spray adhesive and affixed it to the Dollarama mat. 

I mixed up some white acrylic paint with tap water (about 2:1 paint to water) to thin out the paint and make the finished product a little less opaque. Then I used a foam brush to stamp the paint onto the mat. The stencil does not form a seal with the mat, so it is important you stamp your brush, rather than sweep it, to keep the paint from bleeding under the stencil. 

I got too excited about seeing the finished product, so I ripped of the stencil as soon as I was done. Then I thought about taking a picture, so I laid the ripped, wrinkled stencil back on the mat. 

Close enough. 

Now, without the stencil: 

Now look how cute he is sitting at my door! 

How’s that for a friendly welcome home?