This week I taught a lesson that focused on the video “The Story of Stuff”

Before introducing the film I had the students write a list of five of their favourite things (objects, belongings). I made it clear these could not be alive or people.

Secondly, I introduced some of the big ideas that the film would be talking about: Environment, Economy, Sustainability, and Consumerism. I gave definitions and answered students questions. I then handed out a piece of paper with three titles: I wonder… I agree… I disagree…

Then we watched the film. More accurately, I watched the students watching the film. I was impressed with their focus and attention. Also watching the students watching let me know when to pause and let them write. We also took a brain break halfway through when I saw a couple people show signs of fatigue.

We then had a class discussion on what was the main message of the film. The students eventually agreed that it was something along the lines of “We need to stop buying and throwing away so much stuff because it is hurting people and the environment.”

The next activity was a classroom compass. I asked the students to use the classroom as a scale with one end representing the view “I completely agree with the message of the film and would give up all of the things on my list” and the other being “I completely disagree and would not give up anything on my list.” The second scale moved the opposite direction and had to do with behaviour. One side represented pro environmental behaviour all the time (recycling, buying less, composting,conserving energy), the other consumerism.

 

Then the students spoke to someone very close to them about what they wrote and their view. Then they spoke to someone very far away from themselves.

Finally, the students wrote a paragraph that supported their position on the compass. They needed to write a position statement. “In my opinion”, “I believe”, “I think” Then give three reasons to support their position. They were encouraged to use personal examples and evidence from the film.

Overall, I think the students were engaged in the whole lesson. It took me an hour and a half to get through everything. I was happy with the deep thinking their writing and the quality of their “I wonders” on the film response sheet.

My day at Annieville went by very quickly. The morning consisted of a prep block, followed by a math lesson that was interrupted by a fire drill, then a section of the FSA. Time flew by because I was busy most of the day.

During prep I organized assignments, created lists, and printed more flow charts. Math was interesting because just as the lesson were hitting its grove the fire alarm sounded. The fire drill was pretty uneventful. I had an interesting discussion with some of the students about what they thought would happen during a real fire. They expressed the usual “I wouldn’t line up quietly I would run for my life.” and “I would grab all my stuff. My cellphone is in there!” I said the usual “teacher” response of “We practice so much so that those things won’t happen.” Even as I said the words they seemed false in some way. How many times has this conversation played out in classrooms? Millions? More? It made me reflect on things we just say because they are what we are supposed to say or what someone has told us. How can we internalize the importance of fire drills if we only half buy what we are telling the kids?

During the FSA I assisted students and made photocopies of their work for marking by my SA. She is interested in the difference between the marks she will give them and the official markers.

The afternoon was a Math assessment activity with Donna Jenner’s class. It went well. I really enjoyed spending one on one time with a student.

Student lead conferences are coming up. This meant that it was flurry of students attempting to finish up a several projects. I marked Math worksheets. I organized lists of projects and students to ensure everyone had handed in their work. I created a giant checklist for the wall. I also figured out a way to print all of the students Social Studies flow charts in colour. Sometimes, I feel like a magician whose magic wand is a computer. Basically, this was another busy catch-up day.

During French, my SA introduced a new song. First, she had the students listen to the song and try and pick out as many words as they could recognize. Second, she had each student share one of the words they’d heard. Thirdly, she handed out the lyrics and had the students listen along. She checked-in around the percentage of words the students thought they knew. Fourth, she translated the song and the students wrote down the English words. During the translation she often asked students what they thought the line said before providing the actual translation. The students often made good guess and she reinforced their effort. Lastly, she had the students listen along and follow the song with their finger on their translated paper. I thought this was such a rich language learning method. I am excited to try in in Heiltsuk.

I taught a lesson on editing with the students. First, I went over the writing process we had been following. Then I went over the editing stage. I highlighted three areas to focus on: word choice, sentence fluency (editing for a variety of structure and length), and conventions. Then I had them pair off and edit each others work. Then the students worked on their “publishable” final copy for their student lead conferences.

 

My practicum classroom is incredibly well planned and pleasant to be in. My SA started the year with the theme of “zen”. She wanted to declutter, simplify, and bring calm into the classroom environment. As the year has progressed the room has grown more and more beautiful. When I returned a few weeks ago the room had a tree! Now there is water fountain an. A particular shade of light green highlights the room and there is alternative, soft lighting throughout.

One feature that I love is the reading cubbies. Last year my SA had several students who would never read during silent reading. So she asked herself “When do I read?” The answer was when she was curled up on the couch, or on the beach, or laying in bed. One thing all of these locations had in common was her feet were up. So she went about creating spaces that allowed her students to read with their feet up. The students love the cubbies. There is a very fair system that involves drawing names and ticking them off a list. This allows each student to be in a cubby at least once a week.

I really believe that the love and attention my SA has put into her room improves the learning environment as well. We know children learn better in a clean, organized space. So the zen theme makes sense to me. I think of the bare, uniform, institutional classrooms of high schools and universities and wonder how learning can be “fun” in these environments?

Here are some photos of this amazing classroom.

This past week I continued my story writing teaching with a  lesson on writers workshop. This lesson was formally observed, which always changes the dynamic of the classroom. I’m not sure why but having a stranger in the class watching me (a relative stranger) teach must be so strange of the students. Mostly they roll with it though.

I am attaching a copy of my lesson plan, for anyone who may be interested. LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON PLAN – JAN 28 – Annieville – Grade 7

There were several areas for improvement. The concept of showing not telling in writing deserves a whole lesson in itself. I was clearly teaching about the students heads. They really did need more examples from stories and a joint construction activity. This is something I can work on next time. Secondly, I should not have let students leave the room. When I was asked I was frazzled because I was still trying to assign groups. If I had paused I would have realized there is enough room in the classroom and they will do inside. It would have let me have more control of the situation.

Overall, the lesson went okay. I think the students were excited to share their stories and gave pretty good feedback to their peers. I am excited to read their revised drafts.

There was an assembly on the third week of practicum. This assembly was to hand out the “G Awards” to recognize those students who had received all G’s for their hard work in the previous term. There were several other announcements as well. The final announcement was that the professional CD of Annieville’s school rock song had finally come in the mail. The song had been composed early in the school year and this was the first time the school would hear it again.

The grade seven’s were very excited about the song. They were singing very loudly. They only knew the chorus but grew louder each time it repeated. By the end of the song some of the grade seven’s were screaming out the words. Many of the other students in the school were also singing the chorus very loudly by the end of the song.

Despite this the principal decided to play song once more as the children exited the gym. The sing got even more loud. Since the grade seven’s are the last to exit the gym they stuck out because of their loud shouting of the lyrics. After the assembly the grade seven’s stayed to help reset the gym.

The principal was clearly very disappointed in their behaviour and gave the students a lecture over the microphone. Several of the students did not freeze and listen but continued to pull tape off the floor. This made their teacher very angry. As the clean up continued two of the boys decided to play toss with the tape ball the had made from the tape they’d pulled off the floor. This was not a strong choice as their teacher was already quite upset.

When we arrived back in the classroom the statement was. “I don’t even have words anymore. You tell me what went wrong.”

The students mentioned somethings. The teacher asked “How can we do better? How can we support each other to do better?” She very earnestly wanted a student solution to this problem. The class had some ideas about what they could do.

The the principal came into the classroom. The lecture started up again from both the principal and the teacher. This lasted for the remainder of the day.

I don’t really know what to think about what happened. While I was surprised at how carried away the students got from the song I was also surprised with an hour long correctional talk. I know there are no easy answers to these kinds of situations. It left me with more questions than answers that’s for sure.

For example, where exactly is the line between over excited and disruptive? How much control can we expect from grade seven students? Mostly, how useful was a fifty minute lecture about their mistakes?

During my second visit this term I taught a lesson on writing stories to the students. I mentioned to Ms. Dolejsi that I needed a writing sample and she said “Okay, so you’ll teach a writing lesson today.” I thought she would just have me copy one of the students prior pieces, instead she gave me the opportunity to practice teaching. It was a pleasant surprise.

I started with the prompt word “star”, draw from Ms. Dolejsi’s prompt word jar. The jar was created by students writing down as many things that they could think of that they would want to write about. Ms. Dolejsi has had the jar for several years. She only uses it every other year as she doesn’t want students she has two years in a row to become bored with the topics.

I started the lesson out by doing a group idea webbing exercise with the class. I drew names out the popsicle stick jar and each student shared their idea. All of the students were very eager to participate and share their ideas. Some of the ideas were related and others were totally new ones. Here is a photo of our “finished” web.

Afterwards, I asked the class to think of a good story they had read. I then asked what makes a good story. The students shared their ideas. I wrote them on the board.

Finally, I wrote a list of three things pulled from their list that I thought they should concentrate on in their stories.

1. Main Character: Who are they? Name? Age? Gender?
2. Setting: Where? When?
3. Problem: What does your main character have to overcome?

The students began to write. When I informed them that time was up they asked for more time. Ms. Dolejis and I agreed and gave them ten more minutes.

A few students finished their stories in the allotted time. I had them check their stories based on three questions I had written on the board.

Does my story have:

• A beginning, middle, and end?
• details, description?
• Is my story interesting/funny/engaging/scary? Does it do what I want it to do?

I paired up a few of the early finishers and had them share their stories with each other. All of the students were very excited about getting to writing after