Another 4 weeks have passed and I have learned so much! With each passing day, I become more comfortable and learn how to support the various learning styles of my students. I have learned to use this knowledge to adapt my lesson plans and ensure that I integrate the different learning styles within the classroom. In my lessons, I include as many visuals as possible (videos, pictures, charts) as the majority of students in my class are visual learners. Any time they are working on a fun project or assignment, they often ask me to create one too! For instance, we went on a 2 day camping trip and students created name tags. They wanted me to make one too, so I did! We are also creating French pizza menus and I was told that I have to make one too!

I have been incorporating as many hands-on activities as possible into my lessons so that students will remember what they have learned. In one of my recent lessons where I taught students about the angles in a triangle, I set up an activity in which the students discovered on their own that the angles always add up to 180°. This worked so well that I decided to do the same thing for quadrilaterals. They were very excited about figuring out angles on their own. Just yesterday, one of my students said to me, “I like your lessons because you always have a fun activity for us to do”. Hearing a comment like this is the best feeling in the world. It showed me that the students are enjoying learning, which is our ultimate goal as educators.

Prior to beginning the poetry unit, I was anxious because students had made comments about how much they dislike poetry. Now, they grab their booklets whenever they have free time so that they can work on their poems. We started off simple with Haikus and Cinquains and in the next few weeks, we will write free verse and limericks, which they are very excited about!

One thing that I have realized is that you can’t plan too much in advance. I have always been a “planner”, thinking ahead about the next few weeks. One day, I began to look ahead at the next two weeks and write down notes about my lessons. However, we ended up having a few assemblies, some fire/earthquake drills, and other disruptions that are to be expected in schools. I had put a lot of time into creating the schedule and this was when I understood the true meaning of being flexible!

Overall, everything is going very smoothly and along with the students, I am learning so much and definitely enjoying this valuable experience.