06/24/16

Week 3 of CFE: Learnings and Take Aways

Well, we have reached the end to another amazing experience. I feel so fortunate and lucky to have experienced the rural life in Vanderhoof. From horseback riding to cattle driving, it has been a fantastic experience! I have met many genuinely kind and helpful people. There seems to always be someone who is available to lend a helping hand. The connection that people have to each other in this community has been something that I have not felt before.

I have also been fortunate enough to witness some great teaching practices at the school that I was at. It was evident that the teachers and students cared and supported each other, no matter the grade or class that they were in.  Building a strong school community is indeed essential in any school. This school has shown that there is power when students and staff come together as one team. Creating this strong community requires the commitment and effort by every person in the school. My experience has caused me to think about what I can do to help support the students and staff at the schools that I will be teaching in the future. My role as a teacher does not end when I leave the classroom at the end of the day – it continues through how I build my relationships with the students and staff before and after school.

I have also learned how valuable it is to expose students to the outdoors and nature. All of the teachers at the school made an effort to get their students to go outside to explore and learn from their environment. As a result, the students were more engaged and focused during times when they were in the classroom. My experience at the school has shown me that students should be exposed to their environment and nature more often during class time. I believe that students need that mental break from being indoors in a classroom all day. Students can learn so much from learning about their environment. Learning does not always have to be taken place within the four corners of the classroom or school. Furthermore, when students get those opportunities to go outside to learn, they feel more energized and ready to learn.

Overall, I am thankful that I chose to teach at a rural school. This has been an unforgettable experience!

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06/17/16

Week 2 of CFE: Building Relationships

Another week at Vanderhoof has flown by! I am beginning to feel less like a city girl from Vancouver and more like a country girl from Vanderhoof! This week at the school, I wanted to focus on building relationships with the students – something that I strive to do given any setting. Even though I am here for a short amount of time, I want to build relationships with the staff and students as much as possible. Through my observations and conversations with students, I have come to realize that many of the students face a range of problems that affect how they behave and learn within the classroom. These problems include divorced parents, neglect, or learning disabilities. Of course, this is experienced within any school setting, urban or rural. The only difference is that, especially within a small school, it is hard to find the right resources to support students who are at a high-risk. These students do get some support, but often times, students are not getting enough support because the resources are so limited.

This means that building relationships, especially with students who are at a high-risk, is so important. As one of my professors at UBC used to say, every child deserves an adult in their life who cares about them. I had the opportunity to sit down and speak one-on-one with some students this week. I began the conversation by talking to them about what they were working on. After a while, our conversations developed and I began to get a glimpse into their life, such as what they liked about school, what they wanted to be when they grow up, etc. Through these conversations, I learned just how powerful and quick making connections with students can be. For many of these students, they do not get many opportunities to share stories with someone else who is willing to sit and listen to them. As teachers, I realize that we do not always get the luxury of sitting down for an hour with each student to have a conversation with them. Nonetheless, it is still important that as teachers, we find those small opportunities throughout the day to have conversations with our students to find out how they are doing and hear their stories that they want to share with us.

06/10/16

Week 1 of CFE: Rural Living

It has been an exciting and fulfilling first week here at Vanderhoof! If we are to talk about a completely new experience, this is it. Living in a small town such as Vanderhoof has so far been a very humbling and eye-opening experience. I have had a busy schedule with jumping from classroom to classroom. This week, I began team teaching in a Grade 1/2/3 classroom, where we started an insect inquiry unit. The students took charge of their own learning and built their own insect habitat in the classroom! We went on a bug hunt around the school and collected branches, leaves, and of course, insects! The students then chose their own insect to study and did some research on its life cycle. It has been wonderful to see how engaged the students are in doing their own research and learning about different insects every day.

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From teaching in a rural classroom, I have noticed that there are some vast differences between teaching in a rural setting and an urban setting. Being in a school with less than 100 students means that the school community feels richer and more inclusive. Almost every student knows each other, including all of the 4 teachers. Every Friday, the teachers get some time to collaborate with each other to share resources! I have also noticed that the students are extremely hands-on and know many facts about the outdoors. Many students have shared stories of exploring the outdoors in the forest during their free time. They also have different responsibilities at home, which include feeding and taking care of their animals. I believe that this level of responsibility that is required from rural students affects how they learn and behave at school. Students take responsibility in their own learning and are highly interested in the topics that they explore in the classroom. They are not afraid to take risks or to try different things because they are used to doing that in their home life.

I have made some great connections with many of the students in the school. I have found that the students are open and love to share stories about their adventures outside of school. I can already tell that saying good bye to the students and staff will be very tough by the end of the three weeks.

06/4/16

Weeks 9 & 10: Bittersweet Endings

We did it! It has been a very busy (and slightly crazy) couple of weeks, but we have reached the end of our 10 week practicum. One word: Wow. I feel like I have learned more in the past 10 weeks than during my 4 year History degree. I began my 10 week practicum as a scared and nervous student teacher and now I have blossomed into a confident soon-to-be teacher. I have reached the end of my practicum, having learned how to handle a variety of different (and sometimes difficult) situations. I have learned how students best learn, which is through hands-on, inquiry based learning. There were some tough days and weeks, but perseverance and determination helped me to get through those bumps along the road. Overall, I made some great connections with many of my students. Yesterday was a bittersweet moment. I was proud that I had come so far in my practicum, but sad that I had to say good-bye to all of my students and the staff. I feel so fortunate to have had this great opportunity to teach at my school and in my particular classroom. It has been a whirlwind of emotions and of learning. Now, it’s time to recap what we did during my final weeks in the classroom.

We ended our Tomatosphere project this week. Unfortunately, not many seeds were able to germinate from either group. 10 seeds germinated from Group D and 4 seeds germinated from Group F. I submitted the results and we found out that the seeds from Group D were the ones that were sent to space for 5 weeks! I had originally thought it would be the other way around. My students were smarter than me with most of them guessing the right group. They commented that they think that normal tomato seeds wouldn’t grow as fast as the seeds that were sent to space. Some great thinking by the Grade 1 students!

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We finally finished building our community model yesterday. The students were so involved and engaged in making the model. They problem solved and collaborated well together as they tried to figure out which buildings should go where and how the roads should be built. Some students even built 3D models of buildings! Overall, the project was very successful and I am so proud of the hard work that the Grade 1s did!

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Finally, the class gave me a parting gift yesterday. They arranged a basket full of useful resources such as books, stamps, pencils, and notebooks – all useful things that any beginning teacher can use! It was very difficult to say good bye to my students. I may or may not have cried. But like what I always say, it’s not good bye but see you later – and I have a good feeling that I will be seeing all of them again soon.

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Now, it’s time for the next adventure: Community Field Experience! I will be heading up north to Vanderhoof to teach at an elementary school. I will continue to post weekly reflections on my experience of teaching in a rural school, so continue to follow this blog for all the continued fun and learning!

05/22/16

Week 8: Tough Days

I debated whether or not to write a post this week, but I figured that part of being a teacher is being honest about your own teaching practice. I can’t sugar coat everything and make postings that are all about my achievements in the classroom. Of course, I do want to highlight all of the amazing things that my students are doing in the classroom, but I would be doing a disservice to this blog space and to myself if I ignored the fact that there are hard days, and sometimes, hard weeks. This week has been a hard week.

Classroom management has been tough for me. There are days where I feel that I have progressed in this aspect. I certainly feel that I have learned a lot and improved in some areas of classroom management since the beginning of my long practicum. I have learned how to use a firm and loud voice. I have learned many different strategies to use in the classroom. But it’s the consistency that I am currently struggling with. I have to be more clear. I have to be more consistent. I have to set more consequences if students do not follow expectations. Those three things are the key aspects that I am missing in my classroom management. Knowing this, I have put a plan into place to help ensure that I meet all of these targets in the classroom. I definitely got a wake-up call this week and while it has been an emotional couple of days, I am determined now more than ever to finish off this 10-week practicum strong. I am determined to vastly improve my classroom management skills within the next two weeks so that I can feel at the very end that I have accomplished and understood the many facets of classroom management. I have all of the tools that I need in order to succeed in this. Now, it is about implementing it into my classroom.

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05/17/16

Inquiry: Scaffolding and Modeling

Welcome back to another post on my inquiry.

Last time, I touched on how I have been working on allowing students to demonstrate their understanding through different avenues. The students did a great job on their fairytale projects because they were able to choose how they wanted to present their fairytales as a group. Many students chose to do a drama and made their own costumes and props! Other groups decided to use puppets. One group made a pop-up presentation of their fairytale, which was so creative!

Moving onto the intent of this post: scaffolding and modeling. During my research on my inquiry topic, I came across many articles that discussed the importance of scaffolding and modeling as a way of helping to build student self-confidence. I have kept this in mind during my practicum as something that I am constantly striving to do. Has it always been perfect? No, but I believe that I am getting better at this aspect. I like to call it “front-loading” or “pre-loading” as it is also called. Front-load all of the expectations of what students are to do before they begin an activity to: 1. prevent misbehaviors and 2. so that students have the confidence in themselves that they know what to do and how to complete the activity. I am finding that fewer students are coming up to me feeling confused or asking questions because I have scaffolded and modeled the activity.

I have also found that anchor charts have aided students who are visual learners and need those drawings to make sense of their learning. I display anchor charts around the classroom (wherever there’s space!) to help students remember key pieces of information about concepts. They can feel confident that they can look at the chart whenever they need that extra support.

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05/14/16

Week 7: Down to the Wire

3 more weeks. It’s really down to the wire now. I will admit – I may have planned a little too much to do for my practicum. I have had to cut out a lot of things from my units. The good thing is that the time crunch has allowed me to reflect on what is really important to teach to my students. Nonetheless, here is my reflection of this week.

We finished two major units, fairytales and plants! The students presented their fairytales to the class this week. They should be proud of what they have accomplished. Many groups worked really hard on their projects over the past two weeks. Next up – Aboriginal storytelling! I am quite excited to read to my students Aboriginal stories because they are so different and unique. My students are in for a treat!

To bridge my plants and patterns in the sky units, our class planted some Tomatosphere seeds! One packet of seeds are the “control” tomato seeds, the other seeds were sent to space/treated in space-like conditions. The trick is that we don’t know which is which! The students and I are excited to watch the two plants grow. Hopefully we’ll see some changes happening soon!

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We also started our Community unit this week. Our class went to the Fire Hall near our school. The students learned about fire safety, fire trucks, and they even got to use a giant water hose! We started building parts of our community bulletin board in the classroom. The students went onto Kidpix during Computers this week and drew a picture of their house. We came back into the classroom and coloured them in! We’ll be working on our bulletin board over the next few weeks – adding roads, the school, the Fire Hall, and other buildings in our community!

05/6/16

Week 6: Creativity Fair & SEL Approaches

Wow, did this week ever go by fast! Our week was jam-packed with many exciting events happening, including Mother’s Day art activities, school dances, and our school’s first ever Creativity Fair!

The Creativity Fair was a huge success. The goal for the school’s Creativity Fair was to build projects using recycled materials. For my class, I decided to give my students a theme to base their project around. Since we are studying Fairytales, I asked my students to build a house, which would be inspired by The Three Little Pigs story. I left the criteria very open yet I was still surprised by the variety of houses that came into the classroom on the day of the Creativity Fair. The students did an excellent job and were definitely creative in their projects. Many students put in special features in their houses, such as solar panels, a fish pond, a lookout base for the pigs, and gardens! In the afternoon, our class visited other classes to see their projects. The Grade 7s and 6s held an Entrepreneur Fair in the gym where they sold items made out of safe, recycled materials.

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Besides all of the fun activities going on, this week, we have been focusing on SEL approaches in the classroom. As I mentioned last week, we introduced fidget toys. The fidget toys have been going well for the most part, though students do still need reminders of what the rules are when using them. I introduced Brain Breaks into the classroom this week! I made a Brain Break jar with some popsicle sticks that has some quick yet fun activities on them. I am slowly introducing the activities to the students. This week we did Simon Says and Mingle, Mingle, Group! I got all of my ideas from simply Googling Brain Breaks. I am hoping to incorporate a little bit of technology in the Brain Breaks as well, as I begin to get more into it.

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Until next week.

05/1/16

Week 5: Halfway There!

5 weeks down, 5 more weeks to go. Where is the time going!? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I had just started my practicum? In any case, here is what happened during the last week.

This week has been a tough week. My students were chatty throughout the entire week, which really tested my classroom management skills. I am really trying hard at getting better in having that “wait” time and making sure that everyone is looking at me when I am giving new instructions during my lesson. This has been something that I have been working on since practicum started, and I do believe that I have made some progress in this area. Of course, there is more improvement that needs to be made.

For Fairytales, the students are continuing to work on their Fairytale projects. This week, we also learned all about plant parts, including the stem, leaves, and flower. We did the Celery Stem experiment and got to see how the celery stalks changed in colour when we put it in water with red food colouring. The students bean plants are really coming along as well!

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I also got to experience my first field trip as a teacher, taking my class to the Honey Bee Center. The students got to learn about developmental stages of the honey bee, saw a real bee hive, and got to put on beekeeper clothes! Overall, the students really enjoyed the field trip. One student commented that it was the best field trip he has ever been to.

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Our classroom has been working on SEL approaches to help our students focus and do their best learning. This week, we introduced fidget toys into the classroom. The students were (as expected) very excited about the fidget toys. We decided to slowly introduce the students to them, so we first started out with Playdough and bean bags for the students to utilize. We made sure to set the rules when using the fidget toys (i.e. it cannot be seen and you can’t make noise with it). It will be interesting to see how well the fidget toys will be used within the classroom.

Stay tuned for next week.

04/27/16

Inquiry: Continuing to Build Student Self-Confidence

Hello readers,

It has been a while since I have last updated on my inquiry progress. Practicum has been busy but I have not forgotten about my inquiry project. If you remember my post about my synthesis, I had set up some goals for myself to achieve during my long practicum. I have done many of the goals that were outlined in my post. For example, I make the effort to tell my students when I have seen an improvement in their academics or if I notice that they are working really hard. For many of my students, their reading and writing has come a long way from the first time that I met them. It is so great to see when the students are making progress in school and with that progress, comes newfound confidence in their own skills and learning.

I have also tried, and will continue to try, to give my students options on how they can show their learning. This has been a learning experience for me as well, as I seek to address the diversity of my learners in the classroom. For those who struggle in writing in particular, I allow these students to focus on drawing and telling me their understanding rather than asking them to write it out. This helps to alleviate that stress and anxiety of writing for these students. There are still opportunities for these students to continue to practice their writing, but the fact that they are given options to demonstrate their learning in their own way, allows them to build up confidence in their own abilities. I have done this through my fairytales unit for example. I have refined my story maps to allow students to both draw and, if able to, write about fairytale story elements.

I have noticed that over the past couple of months, the overall confidence of my students is improving. They are more sure of themselves and they are really starting to trust in their own abilities to succeed. For example, I know that many of my students know their letter sounds. Whenever they come up to me to ask how to spell a word, I encourage them to sound out the word by stretching it out and breaking the word down, and to simply write the sounds that they hear in that word. It may not be “book spelling”, but the students can feel confident in themselves that they know all of the letter sounds that they hear in a word without having to rely on the teacher for help. That sense of ownership over knowing that they spelt a hard word all by themselves, helps to build that self-confidence. That is probably one of the great things about being in Grade 1- perfect spelling does not matter!