Month: February 2017

My week was busy! At 80% load factor I definitely felt the pace pick up. My 8’s had a test and an assignment due last week. I suddenly had a substantial amount of extra work to complete on top of lesson planning. I managed to finish marking it all and it will count towards their term 2 marks. I’m happy with my time management skills thus far. I am maintaining the pace of the program while staying ahead or on top of all my commitments. I feel confident moving into the next 4 weeks of 100% load factor that I can succeed.

I feel most comfortable with my 8s. I believe it has to do with my SAs choice to give me full reign over the class. Outside of evaluations and the odd changeover after breaks I have been largely left to my own devices with the students. I appreciate this. My SA and I are in contact everyday at some point.

This previous week I gave the students a Machiavellian Test (which I catered to their level of understanding) unbeknownst to them. I covered it as a simple survey from administration. I asked them to not place their names on the survey but instead draw a unique picture they’d remember if they ever saw the forms again. After they filled out the surveys I showed them part of a documentary on Machiavelli and his infamous book the prince. Towards the end of the clip the documentary starts to ask questions that the students had answered earlier in the class. It was oddly rewarding when they all clued in to what had happened. I told the class they could either take the test with them or leave it nameless and submit it to me to go through the online test. The response was great and I am happy to say the majority of my students fall under the low machs category of the test. Its nice to know they do not feel like they have to be ruthless leaders to succeed in the world. That same class I had one on ones with students to give them their quiz marks from the previous week. Having the one on ones was a really good tool to build more rapport with some students I’ve yet to really connect with during class time. I’m happy with the decision to use the documentary as a way to teach but also allow give me time to conduct one on ones.

My 9s were a work week. I rolled out a current events project that is due Monday and Tuesday. I am excited to see the work they produce. On Friday I held four students back after the bell who came into class with food from the cafeteria 5 minutes after the bell had gone. Upon reflection I wish I handled it a bit different. I should have given the students a chance to tell me why they thought it was a good time to go to the cafeteria before my class. Instead I told them it was unacceptable and I would not tolerate it in the future. This would serve as their warning. I remain steadfast that I needed to let them know I was not happy with their choice, yet I should have heard why they made the choice. Lessons for the future incident.

Grade 10s and I seem to work well together. I was nervous taking them on. Much more so than the 9s the previous week. Yet, here I am one week in and most excited about our week ahead. The course content is the first that I am teaching something I studied during my undergrad. I have a group project planned for a one day lesson which is a bit more interactive. I look forward to seeing how that is met with students.

Moving into the first week of my full load I am going to continue to focus on time management and staying ahead of myself by at least three days. I am looking forward to starting the grade 11s and rolling out their Inquiry project that we will work on for the next 4 to 5 weeks.

All in all, I am feeling very optimistic going into week five.

Highlight of the week: Going to a Boys Club meeting. Joining the Tennis program at school. Having students say “goodbye” and “thank you” to me at the end of classes 🙂

Goals for next week: Stay positive. Have fun. and Teach.

This week I picked up my grade 9 classes. This brought my course load up to fifty percent. I felt the week went very well. I have been trying to stay one week ahead of schedule with planning, photocopying and general organization. This was a big help, I have done the same for the following week so I should only have to tweak material and fine-tune lessons.

My grade 8s continue to amaze me. They are very engaged in the work I ask them to produce. The first class of this week we continued with a project I introduced the previous week. The students seemed to really enjoy it. At the end of the project I had students divide themselves into groups depending on which Italian city-state they felt was the most influential during the Renaissance. Each group was then tasked with brainstorming ideas before trying to persuade me that I should consider moving into their respective city-states. Students had a lively debate and even started questioning each other about facts. I was very impressed.

I also moved the desks around in the portable. It was a big help and allowed me to move more freely around the classroom. Barring any potential time restraints I will continue to move the desks into the arrangement I created this week. Students seemed happier with it as well as a number of them no longer had to turn to see the projector.

The experience with my grade 9s was interesting. One block is very engaged, the second block is harder to get through to. I conducted the “Blanket Exercise” with both classes. I was hesitant going into the class. I was not sure how a relatively young class would respond to such a heavy exercise. I was pleasantly surprised with how respectful the students were. The depth of some responses to how they felt after the exercise left me very encouraged moving forward with the students.

One situation that I found very difficult was during my introduction lesson to my grade 9s in block 1 of day 1. While having the students answer questions on a worksheet one student stood up and walked to the back of the room where an a door to outside is situated. I watched him curiously. Before I could even ask what he was doing he was banging his head against the door. I was most definitely caught off guard. I asked the student to stop and had him leave the classroom with me so we could talk about what was happening in the hallway. As we walked out of the classroom he stopped at the door frame into the hallway and again banged his head on the frame. My SA was out of the room and there were no E.As present. I talked with the student and told him that it was unacceptable behaviour to hit your head against doors and walls. I asked if he understood, he said yes, and we returned to class. I inquired with both my SA, the counsellors and the director of the Learning Access Centre as this seemed to be a very odd situation. Unfortunately an oversight was made and no one informed me that this student was on the spectrum and that occasionally when he gets overwhelmed he needs to either go for a walk or find another way to release any anxiety or tension. After finding this out I felt that I handled the situation wrong. I was very stern with the student when we talked, had I know the information I discovered after the fact I would have looked for a different tactic. I talked to my SA about this after and expressed my need to have full information about students. I was rather frustrated by it all. My SA and I have worked out the communication breakdown and I feel comfortable moving forward that full disclosure will be made to me about students who need extra assistance in their learning.

I also had a student, from the same block as the above story, draw a swastika on his name tag. When I noticed it I was quick to pull the student aside and have a discussion about the symbol. I remain steadfast that I will not allow hate speech, propaganda or symbols in my classrooms. I am glad I talked with the student and will monitor him moving forward to be sure he understands that I was serious about what had occurred.

My first class with the grade 8s did not go as I had anticipated. I came in with high expectations. Some of which may have been unrealistic to meet this early on in our relationship. To be honest, nothing particularly bad happened in that first class. Some students were quite loud, occasionally calling out to friends across the room or talking over top of each other and me. Trying to control the room sometimes took more effort than I thought I would need to exert. I   had to move one student to a new seat. Later I learnt that he was not in his assigned seat that day.

The plan for the first day was focused on building rapport with my students and setting out clear, concise expectations and rules for everyone to follow. I felt I executed my plan fairly well. However, I found myself going back to my lesson plan more often than I wanted to. I am going to chalk up some of that habit to nerves. Most days I feel as though my nerves are out of sync. While this experience is exciting and rewarding, it is also very stressful as we navigate the complexities of the situation we find ourselves in.

The day of my second lesson was interesting. I was late to school as the weather unexpectedly caused transiting difficulties. It did provide me with the perfect opportunity to test our “emergency” procedures should I ever miss a day teaching though. I was happy to only test the system on Friday, the class which I facilitated was very productive and I felt that the students were much more respectful to our classroom expectations. I began the class by having students sign the Classroom Rules that we created. Reading over the rules and answering questions set me out on a good path and I think I will be reading the classroom rules for the next couple of classes to create clear and consistent expectations. I was very open with my rules surrounding respectful communication in the classroom. It seemed to work well and referring to the classroom rules when it did get loud gave me leverage to regain attention. I tested out my first worksheet with the class, I was curious to see how they would work when directed to do so individually. It went very well overall. I was slightly surprised at how many times I had to repeat the directions of the task to individuals but I think that speaks more to the size of the class than the student or me. I am very aware of the size of the class at 28 students.

My favourite part of the day: When all students stayed seated and on task up until the bell! I am feeling very positive moving into this second week.

My favourite part of the week: Getting an email from a parent asking for homework for her child before they leave on vacation.

Goals for next week: Have brief 1-on-1’s with each student. Continue to be consistent with classroom rules. Sharpen my ability to facilitate without the use of a lesson plan to fall back on as a security blanket.

Day One.

February 1st, 2017.

Social Studies 8.

I had an image in my head of what the first day would look like prior to going in. I will need to stop imagining the utopia I have created. It is very possible that the utopia I have in my head can exist, but not this early into the practicum. I have to meet my new challenge head on with real, achievable goals set in my head. I believe it is important to envision a successful outcome to any situation I find myself in, yet with so many of them and so few of me I have to be more realistic.

I learnt today it is very hard to prepare for the social issues that arise when you put 25+ teenagers in a room together. They talk as much as you may imagine. Maybe more. Sometimes they talk to the person beside them, sometimes to the student in front, and occasionally to their friend across the room.