This week made me realize that becoming an educator is what I’m destined to do. It was the most difficult week that I encountered; however, all the struggles are going to make me wiser and knowledgeable for the rest of my life. As a teacher candidate, I’m learning from all aspects of becoming a well thought out teacher. I’m learning from my FA, SA, Hellings staff, and especially the students. I’m hoping that these struggles that I’m currently dealing with won’t define who I am, but to see that I’m worthy to do my best. I am incorporating more engaging lessons and I added 3 new subjects this week: French, music and physical education. Although, this week has not been my greatest, I truly enjoy adding new lessons and getting feedback in ways to improve for the remaining weeks of my practicum. My French and music lessons have been really fun. In French, I taught numbers 1-15 and added different ways of engaging the students to feel comfortable saying the numbers in French. In music, I taught the class body percussion and creating a soundscape. I added short clips of different soundscapes and as an activity the students created their own freestyle soundscape and presented it to the class. Physical education was challenging since it was my first time teaching P.E and therefore, I wanted to be observed formally. I taught the class California Kickball and although the students still had fun, there could have been a major improvement, such as using California kickball vocabulary and not allowing the students to enforce the rules. I was glad that I did get observed, because it made me aware of different settings and I will re-teach this lesson again feeling more confident. Moreover, I was apart of the regional track and I had lots of fun watching dedicated students from different schools working so hard and overall, having good fun and showing sportsmanship. I was lucky to be apart of this event.

What does music look like, feel like, and sounds like?

This week, I taught the class how to make their Mother’s Day cards and it was really fun. At first, I thought I was looking for a Mother’s Day card for my SA to teach the class, but when she told me that I would love to see you teach it, I was really nervous because I’m not so artsy. However, I must say, I had so much fun and the class was incredibly patient and following my steps by steps instructions. My card was a jar filled with a hard and it said, “I cannot contain my love for you…” The students made their own jars with my directions and it turned out really great. It was a good teachable moment for me.

This week was a little overwhelming for me, because I was struggling with combining two different contexts of geometry with my grade 5 and 6 students. I was not familiar with the material and I tried to comprehend how I can teach this to both grades efficiently and in a timely manner. However, it took me the whole class just going over the lesson and no time for them to start working on their activity. I realized I could of done this differently, if I was confident with the material beforehand. Moreover, I had students getting into conflict with each other during lunch time. Apparently, one of the student’s pushed one student and they started hitting each other; while, the other student bit another student on his hand. I know it was really stressful and I was thinking what the heck happened during that 40 minutes. It was a struggle just dealing with confrontation and how to be rationale at the same time. The student who bit the other student went to the office and the principal was talking to him, while I talked to the other two students. I first talked to both of them one on one, and told them that they should not resort to violence and if there is a problem, they need to talk it out. They ended up apologizing and started laughing with each other near the end of the day. It was a stressful week; however, it did prepare me for situations that may occur in the future.

My grade 5 and 6 students love the book, The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. I enjoy reading it to them as well. They constantly have questions and they become aware of difficulties around the world. I get them to do reading response and they make inferences with what they read. I love reading their responses, because it allows me to dig deeper in what they personally think about certain situations. I love that they are engaged in this book and I feel good that they take this serious. Overall, majority of my students really enjoy reading and it’s nice to see that.

As the weeks continue to progress, I start seeing myself as a teacher. I’m starting to feel more confident with myself and taking on more responsibilities in the classroom. I used to feel a little intimated in not knowing how to take action in the classroom, but I let go of my fears and the outcome has been treating me well so far. I still struggle and still get bumpy moments, but that’s what makes me appreciate teaching. As teachers, we are constantly on edge and learning something new each day. The things that I would like to work on is to feel more confident with some lessons such as math and have that teacher third eye when I’m helping students one on one. For example, some of my students need extra support and I’ll help them; however, I tend to forget to scan the classroom because I’m so focused on helping those students to understand their assignment. Also, I’m still working on my transitions like handing out worksheets to the classroom. I notice that it’s not being done in the most effective way and I would like to see an improvement as I continue to teach.

I must say that my first week of practicum has been the most challenging, yet rewarding week for me. It started challenging due to the fact that I still haven’t found my teacher voice. It was a struggle managing my students and that they were being really disruptive. They weren’t even listening to me after 2 or 3 warnings and that was my first day of starting the week. My SA stated I need to set the tone with them and it has to be done this week. It was really stressful and I didn’t want to be a disappointment to myself nor to my SA and FA. I created a lesson plan that really helped me reach out to my students and I must say I’m relieved that this lesson plan worked. The lesson plan was brainstorming class expectations and rules that we need to make, in order for our classroom to be effective in learning and safe for everyone. They understood and started applying that to themselves. The biggest aww moment for me was when lunch was over and all of my students were quietly lined up and walked into the classroom. They had their planners and books ready to go. It made me feel so special that they cared and respected our class expectations. Since then, managing the class has not been that difficult. I still need to work on this and hopefully become a professional at the end of this experience.

What I learned from the Inquiry Presentations

Homework:

• Pros- fosters responsibilities and improves understanding of class materials; increases study habits; allows parents to be more involved with what their child is doing at school.
• Cons- increases anxiety and stress when the child does not understand their homework. Lack of help from parents (they might not understand it either) and students may not have available resources such as the Internet to use.

Teachers Support Grieving Children in the Classroom:

• As teachers, we should support students who lost someone close to them. Therefore, look for resources that can educate us about this sensitive topic and be there for our students. Most importantly, we should respect all grieving styles and be aware of different cultural traditions with grieving.

Flipped Classroom:

• Flipped classrooms can increase interactions
• Frees up class times
• Khan Academy for math is an excellent resource that helps students understand math and give them extra practice.
• Con: Mandatory use of technology and internet

Strategies for Maintaining Anxiety

• Anxiety can take in many forms like generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, selective mutism anxiety disorder, specific phobias and social anxiety disorder.
• Teachers can help students by:
  • Seating them close to you
  • Being clear and repeat, so giving students a sense of direction
  • Cool- down
  • Answering questions

Music and Education

• Singing can improve communication
• It’s emotionally arousing
• Helps students calm down and stay on task.
• Music can be cross-curricularà math (fractions) and science (using different vegetables to create sounds)