Thursday the class took part in their first ever poetry slam, the students presented their poems and supported their classmates! One of the my favorite parts of the poetry slam was when I asked the class who would like to be the first to present their poem and one of the boys who experiences challenges in the class often, shot his hand up and the look on his face when all his peers were snapping for him was priceless. On a whole the poetry slam was a great success the students had fun and it was nice to see the classes come together and appreciate one another’s poems. The rest of the day went by quickly as our afternoon was filled with library and the grade 7 entrepreneurship fair. My SA and I have prep in the afternoon which was filled with unit planning discussion and clarification, I was happy to hear that my units were well planned and engaging.

As I mentioned in last week’s post my SA and I went over my goals for long practicum last week and they include behavior management, transitions, lesson timing and collaboration. The two I would like to begin to focus on is behavior management and collaboration with my teaching partner. Collaboration is something that I will continue to work on by being supportive and encouraging during our shared practicum experience. Further I will try my best to voice my opinions in a non-judgmental and noncompetitive way as well as continue to have open communication with one another. As for behavior management I would like to step away from using my voice instead using other strategies to engage students and get their attention. The goals I have for behavior management are not about problems with students in class ad disruptive behavior, it is more so the whole class transition times were I need to get the whole classes attention. As mentioned I rely on my voice currently and I would love to learn some new attention grabbers/techniques that I could use that foster and reinforce social and emotional learning in the classroom. I did ask my SA  if I could do a few mini refresher lessons on the zones of regulation the week I begin my practicum so we can be using the zones “check-in” throughout the day with the class. I think this will give the students an opportunity to acknowledge their own emotions also it will help me gauge how my students are feeling and how this will impact my teaching and their learning. In conclusion I am happy that this past practicum went well and I am looking forward to my long practicum so I can really get to know my students and know what kind of teacher I really am!

PS: This is my overarching goal every day I am in the classroom, every child does matter and it is my job to help them understand that.

I can’t believe its March and there is only one more Thursday visit before long practicum! To be honest I am a little nervous as I still have so much unit planning to complete. And when I unit plan I often spend so much time thinking about what I will do, and want to make it meaningful, engaging and inclusive for all my students. As you know this is not the easiest of tasks and to top it off I put extremely high expectations on myself to be the best that I can be, and at times these expectations are unattainable. Which is why one of my own personal goals for long practicum is to try to be more accepting and encouraging of myself and my abilities, and it is going to be okay if I make mistakes that is part of my lifelong learning process of being a teacher. Thursday was my second last day teaching poetry in my class. The students were given a choice to write a new poem during the lesson and we began by reviewing all that we have learned thus far regarding haikus, couplets and limericks. It was humbling to realize that my class did learn when I taught them and enjoyed reading and writing their own poetry. Next week Raman and I are going to host a “poetry slam” where students will be given an opportunity to read aloud one of their own poems, as well as engage in self-reflection. I am looking forward to next week to see what poems the students will choose to read and the confidence it takes for them to read aloud. I am also going to make sure that all my students needs will be met during this time, if any of them are not comfortable reading aloud either a teacher or a peer will read the poem on their behalf. Most of the poems are not very long meaning we should have enough time for most if not all students to share their piece of poetry. On Thursday my SA and I also discussed my strengths and goals for long practicum, it was nice to know that we are both on the same page and the affirmation that she believes I my abilities and will support me throughout this whole process. My goals are to continue work on behaviour management, lesson timing and sequence and the one I added was collaboration and teamwork with my co-TC. We also discussed some strategies that I can use that will help me achieve my goals such as open communication, clear and concise classroom expectations and the understanding that everyone has their own opinion and part of being professional is respecting that. I am looking forward to the long practicum however I am feeling both excited and a little nervous!