June 2016

Final Week at St. Mary’s

Leigh Della Siega One Comment

I leave this CFE with sadness and joy because I did really feel like I was a part of the staff at St. Mar’y and felt like I really came into my own during my time there.  The staff was so helpful – giving me advice and sharing resources to help ensure that I have success next year.  I am so grateful for the guidance and care I was shown at St. Mary’s and would recommend this placement to any future teacher candidates who want to explore the option of teaching in a Catholic school!

My last few days were absolutely amazing.  The students each presented their personal interest projects and I was amazed at how well they handled themselves in front of the group.  They shared their ideas, thought of interesting and unique performance strategies and most of all, challenged themselves to try something new.  My sponsor teacher commented on each of the students’ report cards about this project because she felt that every child shined and showed their love of learning within the perimeters of this project. I also did peer and self assessments for each of the projects (2 stars and a wish style), which I found really powerful as well.  I thought I would highlight a few projects that stood out for me to give a sense of how wonderful this project is for all learners.

One student in this class tragically lost her father earlier this year.  He was a very talented artist so she decided to attempt to recreate his art even though art is difficult for her.  This is a student that struggles in many areas of classroom life, but in this project I saw her take a risk and do something she knew would be difficult. With assistance from me, she was able to present and share her drawing with the class and you could tell she was very proud of this accomplishment.  This was the first time she was able to complete and present a project this year.

Another group of three boys worked diligently throughout class time and outside of school to create an in-depth analysis of a video game called Splatoon.  I had to try to keep their presentation shorter because of time restraints but it seemed like they could have gone on all day. These boys made posters, videos, brought in samples of the game to share on iPads, made clay figurines of characters, and had each student do an individual reflection on their experiences with video games.  I couldn’t believe the amount of effort these children were willing to put in when they had the freedom to choose their own topic.

Many students battled with a little bout of stage fright before they went up to the front to present.  One boy expressed that he wants to be a chef when he grows up so he did his project on cheesecake.  He made cheesecake at home and brought in photos to share his experiences of making this particular no-bake cheesecake.  I could tell he was extremely nervous so I made sure he wasn’t the first to present and that he had lost of care and support from me before he went up to the front. As he began, he slowly eased into his narrative and became more comfortable.  When he was done, he shared the cheesecake with the class and staff with confidence.  At one point I asked him if he wanted a piece for himself, but he replied saying that his stomach was still doing flip-flops from the presentation so he needed to wait before he ate anything.  I was so proud he had faced his fear – and the cheesecake was such a treat!

These were just a few moments from the amazing presentations I had the opportunity to assess and be a part of.  I feel like I never would have taken a risk like this if my sponsor teacher hadn’t pushed me to do these projects, but I am so happy that I did it! Projects like this fulfil so many of the goals within the core competencies!  It was very easy to find curricular connections that make this project so valuable to grade three’s (and any grade’s) curriculum. I will definitely be doing genius hour in my class next year and I can’t wait to find out what my future students will choose to learn about!!

Good Bye 44 Sounds!

Michelle Min Young Joo One Comment

I can’t believe that my CFE practicum is already over! It seems like just yesterday I was introduced to the students and now I’m saying good-bye to them. It has been such a unique experience for me because I was able to teach some of the students using the Orton-Gillingham approach. If it wasn’t for this opportunity, I would never have known about the 44 sounds and how incredibly useful this multi-sensory approach is for students who struggle with reading and writing.

Although this approach is a more explicit and direct way of teaching phonics, it is also very multi-modal and engaging for the students—this unique aspect of the Orton-Gillingham approach is extremely important because phonics can be very dry and boring for most kids! For example, Elspeth (my CFE coordinator) uses play dough to form different sounds or affixes; visuals to help students remember certain sounds; stories to make etymology of words more appealing; and games to help students with spelling or word recognition. All of these activities are just a glimpse of what goes on during her lessons at the 44 sounds studio.

One of the student and I created the root word, "form", using play dough. This helps kids remember them!

One of the student and I created the root word, “form”, using play dough. This helps kids remember them!

 

I especially really enjoyed being here because it was more than just a tutoring place. It was a small community where all the tutors knew their students and their background in terms of their academic, social, and/or emotional struggles. Most parents were heavily involved in their child’s learning, which ultimately contributed to their child’s progress overall. It reaffirmed by strong belief that teachers need to know their students and develop a relationship with their family as well. This is the first step and the most important part of being a teacher.

I’ve gained a lot from 44 sounds—I now know how to carry on an Orton-Gillingham lesson and I’ve contributed a lot to lesson planning and resource development. Most importantly, I’ve learned a lot from Elspeth. Aside from being incredibly patient and kind, she is also a great teacher who knows how to empathize with all of her students. This has been a great journey for me, and I am so glad that I get to end my practicum experience here!

“True leaders don’t create followers…they create more leaders” – J. Sakiya Sandifer

Jessica Levine One Comment

It feels as though I just arrived here yesterday! My time here at Anam Cara Farm has flown by and I am sad that this is the end. I have learned so much from this outdoor classroom and from my various conversations and experiences throughout these last 3 weeks. It has been an opportunity for me to see how impactful being with animals in nature is. Although this is something I have always known, and just makes sense, it was awesome to be in this setting and see first hand the benefits of equine facilitated wellness.

This week I observed a riding lesson with a  ten year old child with autism. While he was riding I was chatting to the mum about family life and the difference she has seen while he has been riding. She mentioned to me that he is a different person when he is riding, he is calm, quiet and focused. He also loves to come for lessons and when given the choice of whether to continue or not he had no doubt that he wanted to continue despite the fact that transitions are hard for him so coming to his lessons can be a challenge at first. It was so great to see how pleased his mother was with his progress and the difference it has made in his life over a few short months.

It is surprising to me that more funding is not put towards something that is so natural and beneficial. Being here for a consistent amount of time has meant that I have been able to see how much work goes into managing and maintaining a farm. There is no such thing as having a weekend or evenings relaxing because the animals need to be looked after no matter what the day is!  I hope that wherever I end up in my teaching journey I will be able to spread the word about the benefits of equine facilitated wellness and I hope to implement the lessons I’ve learned here into my own classroom one day.

I plan to continue volunteering here and hope to continue on a lasting relationship with the wonderful people who have hosted me!

 

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Practice Make Purr-fect: Looking Back On My CFE

Graham Hiebert One Comment

Over the past three weeks, which have gone by in a flash, I have had the privilege a great deal of good, solid educational practice. I have seen firsthand the impact that carefully planning, clear expectations, precise execution, and a meaningful reflection back can have on educational experiences outside the traditional norm of a classroom. For me, something that has stuck out in this whole process is that the content is nothing without the delivery. Very little can replace good modelling and there is no true substitute for expectations, both in relation to content knowledge and behaviour.

Something I have truly seen value in over my community field experience here at the Greater Vancouver Zoo and out at Camp Squeah, is the impact proper modelling can have. At camp, this was obvious. Especially in a new environment showing, actually showing, the students how to behave to ensure safety, structure, and fun is so very crucial. When the students were rock climbing, showing them that yes it can be scary but it is so much fun when you get on that wall, so much fun to take that risk, and so rewarding to complete it. This transfers to them the confidence to try. Modelling this confidence (whether you feel it or not) shows them that if you the teacher are willing to take the risk, so can they. Modelling encouragement for other students when they a participating in activities encourages the student to be encouraging towards each other. It is a cycle of encouragement. This is encouraging to see (ok I’m done with the word encourage). Through this, we see that this is connected to both the behaviour of your students but also the relationships that are created. Now this is obvious in the camp setting as the nature of camp strips away the layers of analogy and everything is much more literal (see my previous post), but the power of modelling can also exist in a setting like leading a tour at the zoo. In this scenario, modelling is important for the students as it allows them to make the most of the experience. Sure you could just lead the tour, giving information about particular animals and answering the odd question, but are the students going to connect to the information this way? No. However, if you can take the time to model the process of inquiry for the students, questioning and then discussing, formulating answers and sharing them, the impact on the students is tremendous. During my tours, finding time to model this and then allow the students time to do this themselves made a huge difference. By telling and then showing them how this works, the connections the students make the to the content were significant. They are being talkative. They are very excited. But all this noise is good. They are engaging their peers in questions and answers about the animals. They are enthusiastic, engaged, and using critical thinking. As an educator, this feels good. And how did I achieve this blissful state of scientific inquiry? Giving them the space to do so and modelling the skills/prices they will use.

But expectations are also important. I know we have discussed them at length in theory classes. Placing the expectations in the hands of the students so they know what is appropriate and what is not. However, these expectations are often misshaped and distorted to resemble expectation’s negative cousin: RULES. They are not the same thing. Expectations have a quality that sets it apart from rules and is simply more effective. By explaining and modelling (see the connection to the first section? Educational mind blow!), expectations describe the WHY. I am expecting you to act this because of this reason. It is the because that is important as it allows the students to take ownership of these guidelines. For example, during my tours, I created a spiel about how all the students are my Jr. Zoologists and as Jr. Zoologists, we care for the animals by making sure the pay are getting the proper diet, making sure the animals feel safe, making sure the animals are comfortable, etc. And to do this, we have to make sure the animals don’t get any of our food, make sure we are giving them space by staying off the fences, and make sure we are quiet so the animals can live in peace. Much better expectations than the simple rules of no feeding the animals, no climbing on the fences, and no yelling at the animals. Upon anointing them my Jr. Zoologists, the ownership they took for the role and expectations for the role was remarkable. They were the perfect little scientists.

Overall, this is simply good practice. Both of these elements, modelling and expectations, is something every teacher should be doing in their classroom and out. It wasn’t the content that connected my students at the zoo and out at camp, it was the delivery. Yes animals are exciting and you would be hard pressed to find a primary student who wasn’t fascinated by these creatures. Camping is an exciting activity and the majority of my intermediate students found the whole activity engaging. However it is in the getting them to care about and connect to the material where we as teachers find difficulty and the two practices of modelling and setting clear expectations, do go a long way.

PS. Tigers don’t actually purr, they chuff which is loud and more car-engine like but the name was too good to pass up.

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I will miss the view

2nd Week at St. Mary’s

Leigh Della Siega One Comment

Although I did end up getting sick this week, I had another great week at St. Mary’s! The more time I spend at this school, the more I appreciate this community and the privilege I have to be a part of it for these few weeks.

I have been asked to reflect on the differences I see between this school/class, and my previous practicum experience.  I should start by mentioning that my elementary and high school education took place in schools governed by the Catholic Independent Schools of Vancouver (CISVA).  These are semi-independent (funded 50% by the BC government and 50% by tuition and fundraising) schools across the lower mainland  with a few like St. Mary’s, which are a little farther out of town.  There are 48 K-12 schools in the CISVA and they share a similar Catholic curriculum, they also strictly follow BC’s curriculum as well.  I am very comfortable in this setting (my Mom teaches in a CISVA school, as well as many of my relatives) and feel drawn to spend my career in this setting as well.  Teaching in a faith based school is very similar to teaching in a public school.  These schools are not elitist or unaffordable.  We include religious content across the curriculum and try to make as many connections as we can to spread God’s word in the classroom.  So to compare the two, I would say they are the same except in Catholic schools, there are prayers at lunch and at the end of the day.  In conflict resolution, the children usually are instructed to pray and think about how God or Jesus would see the situations.  At St. Mary’s the children also go to Mass once a week (Most CISVA schools go once a month) and have a trusting relationship with the parish pastor.  This being said, not all students are baptized Catholics, so we still honour a diversity of beliefs in the classroom.  The class sizes are unfortunately bigger.  The class of grade threes I am placed with at St. Mary’s has 27 students.  CISVA elementary schools also typically have french preps from K-7 which is different also.  I do believe that kids are kids no matter where you are.  There are a handful of students in my class with very difficult pasts/home lives.  There are also several students with special needs in the class. As an example of how I can best compare the two,  I had to teach inappropriate ways of being touched and assertive behaviour in my 10-week practicum.  I am now teaching the same unit with this grade three class but from a different perspective.  The unit is called “I am a gift from God”, and it has the same message that I taught to my practicum class, but this time the focus is more religious.  We spend time having the same conversations I had with the practicum class but we finish with a chat about how God loves us and then we pray together.

On another note, St. Mary’s is very different from my own experience of both previously attending a CISVA school and being employed as a teaching assistant in a CISVA school.  The schools I had been in before were much larger, more urban, and had newer buildings, plenty of resources, technology, etc.  St. Mary’s is a very old school and does not have a wealthy alumni/parent base, like several other CISVA schools have. The teachers are wonderful and are teaching in innovative ways and using the inquiry model, but they are slightly limited due to budgetary restraints.

I hope I have done an adequate job of reflecting on the differences between a Catholic school and my experience with a public school practicum.  I know I spent little time defecting on my 10-week practicum, but the public school setting is probably most familiar to most of us.

 

My 2nd Week at 44 Sounds!

Michelle Min Young Joo One Comment

My 2nd week at 44 sounds was a little bit more emotional and made me really reflect back on my practicum experiences as well as my future educational practices.

I came across a book called The Boy Who Learned Upside Down written by Christy Scatterella. It’s based on a true story—a story about Christy’s son, Alex, who has dyslexia and who never really liked going to school until he met Mrs. Sandy. Until now, I was only motivated by my commitment to help and support all students in the best way I can—whatever their learning needs may be—but I wasn’t really able to look at the world through the eyes of a student who struggled with a learning disability.

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Although I was never a fan of pull-out programs (you’ll be amazed to see how quick and intuitive children are to judge other classmates for being “sent” to a different class), Alex receives a lot of support from his resource teacher, Mrs. Sandy. She tells him to do three things that take a lot of courage: tell yourself that “you can”, instead of “you can’t”; help someone else in need; and, finally, believe in yourself. Students like Alex need the support and encouragement more than anything else because they struggle with immense self-doubt and low self-esteem. For Alex, reading is almost impossible in the beginning because the S’s turn into snakes that slither away and the O’s become popcorns that pop out of the page. It’s not a matter or effort or laziness—they just need special and unique tools to learn differently.

This book really made me think about the widespread tendency for teachers to pull out students who need this extra support. Although the intention is great, I think that there is a better way than sending students out of the class. As opposed to the team-teaching model, the pull-out model forces students to miss out on the valuable class time to build stronger relationships with the teacher and their classmates. On the other hand, team-teaching allow students to belong in the regular classroom which helps them learn best as they also play valuable roles within the classroom community. During the school year, my group and I created a research package on the effects of pull-out classes on ELLs (English Language Learners). We realized that the effects didn’t only apply to ELLs but they were also strongly relevant to students with exceptional needs. According to Brownlie, Feniak, and Schnellert (2006), we found that the most effective method of approaching students with exceptional needs is to offer an ongoing program that is implemented within the classroom.

With strong collaboration and clear communication between the resource teachers and the core teachers, I believe that all students can benefit from the inclusive classroom values of team teaching! You can read more about the different teaching models here: https://prezi.com/xvodhoanfonx/tell-research-package-case-7/

 

 

 

Second Week

Jessica Levine One Comment

As I spend more time at my CFE and get more accustomed to the routine and the general tranquility of my environment I feel more and more at home here. It is hard for me to write a blog post that sums up my experience as I feel like the lessons I am taking from Empowered by Horses is on a more intuitive, emotional level than those that are directly taught. So far from my experience I know that without a doubt I support equine facilitated wellness and that I would not hesitate to recommend this as an option for any student I have, or person I know, going through various struggles in life.

This week I had the opportunity to hear Carla speak about PTSD and equine facilitated wellness which was another very formative experience for me. I won’t go into too much detail here but essentially it was about how horses can help us and why. So that includes things such as the fact that being with horses is proven to help with mindfulness and lower cortisol levels. As I helped Carla prepare for the talk I also went into the research and although there is not much I was inspired by the research I found and I will continue to follow the topic into the future.

As far as my own pedagogy is concerned I feel like this experience ties in very well to social emotional learning. I am constantly thinking how I can take this peaceful, mindful experience I am having into the classroom to benefit my future students. Therefore I have been thinking more about the benefits of having a class pet, or having a peaceful corner. It also bring to light the importance of getting to know your students to know what situations they have lived through so that you can work out how to make them feel the most safe and secure in your classroom.

I look forward to the following week and to see what new experiences it will bring!

My Community Field Experience: The Camp Squeah Interlude

Graham Hiebert One Comment

In my previous post, I reflected upon the power of the outdoor classroom, a place that is truly experiential and allows the students to connect to material using a new set of “tools”. This applies to a very broad range of experiences students can have outside the traditional, desk-and-pencil-and-paper education. Opportunities to mentor younger students at a different school, day trips up the mountain to learn how to ski, or maybe even a field trip to the zoo to give the students a first hand experience in a unit about animal adaptations. However, this last week I was given an opportunity to take the students from my practicum to an outdoor camp. A truly outdoor education experience as they slept, ate, and did activities all outdoors, an experience most of which had never had.

The three day outdoor camp experience was certainly new for the majority of my students. Hardly any had been camping and a significant number hadn’t ever left Metro Vancouver. So this world of trees, and plants, and open skies was a new one and one that was, probably, quite uncomfortable at first. For myself as a teacher, this was also a new world. How do I, given so many distractions, obstacles and possible dangers, create a space structured yet open, a space to try and fail and try again, and a space that’s fun but also safe. So the same game-plan as a regular day of teaching but with so many more added elements. Right there, in considering how this outdoor camp will run, I’m going through the same mental list of how these activities are going to work as I would have in my classroom with a math activity on Experimental Probability.

However, this experience IS different and I would be a fool to say otherwise. These extra factors I need to consider are paramount. As the students are being taken out of their comfort zone in a lot the activities (ex. rock climbing, hiking, archery, etc.), I need to consider that this lack of comfort can result in an increase in the probability of something going wrong. Therefore this new, outdoor classroom is different. I found myself more “on edge” in a way. I was analyzing every activity and organizing the students to maximize protection of their safety and mental well-being. Upon reflection, this heightened sense of awareness was an important aspect of my being during the trip. I’m not saying that in a regular classroom lesson, I’m not considering these precautions, letting my students play full-contact tag in a third story classroom with the windows wide open. I’m saying that this outdoor classroom does require a certain awareness that a regular class doesn’t. And through it, your students are given the greatest possible opportunity to have success in this new environment, yet remaining mentally and physically safe.

But Graham, does this mean you’re standing underneath a student on the climbing wall, with arms outstretched, ready to catch them when the fall? No. Outdoor education is an unique experience as all these mantras and cliques we tell our students on a daily basis come to life:

“What do we do when we fall? We pick ourselves up and try again”
“There are many paths to your destination”
“You aren’t always going to hit a bullseye on the first attempt”

These quite, mantras, or cliques statements are made literal in these activities. Through outdoor education, I do think it makes the messages you’re trying to convey easier for the students to understand. If we fall off the wall when we are rock climbing, you learn from that experience and try again. Sometimes obstacles will block your path when you’re hiking, but there will be a way around them to your destination. A bullseye is an incredibly hard target to hit with a bow and arrow, nevertheless on your first attempt. With all these messages and the themes behind them presented in such an obvious way, the students are given a hands-on experience of what the message truly means. They feel the failure and feel the success of the achievement. They see how hard something can be, how the can learn from it, how to become stronger, and how to reach that goal. It is learning transformed into something tangible and something rooted in reality.

So what does outdoor education feel like? It feels real.

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Empowered by Horses

Jessica Levine One Comment

This first week at Anam Cara Farm has been an amazing experience so far. I didn’t know how much I needed the calm sanctity of the barn and being outside all day until I was here! As well as having the chance to spend every day outside with the horses and other animals, I have also had the opportunity to witness a program where the horses clearly had a powerful impact on youth.

For this blog entry I’ve decided to focus on the program that I had the chance to be a part of this week called ‘Bold and Beautiful’. It’s a 6 week program where the students come for 2 hours to the farm where they talk about important lessons and spend time with the horses. I noticed that one of the main focuses was a talk around boundaries, setting boundaries and respecting boundaries. As soon as the girls came in they were immediately wanting to share how they have remembered the previous weeks lessons and about how excited they were for this week, the week where they get to ride the horses. It was an eye opening experience for me to see these girls come in ( 7 of them in grades 6-7) for the most part very quietly, and as the 2 hours went on I saw them all come out of their shell and share in a safe environment. When they did get to ride the horses the smiles on their face were huge and I could tell in that moment how important the work they do at Empowered by Horses is. Those students were able to feel calm, happy and seemingly care free in the moments they were at the farm, as these youth had been chosen for the program because they were considered at risk I think the safety and calming atmosphere of the farm made such a difference even in the short amount of time they spent there.

I am really looking forward to my next couple of weeks here and am excited to see what those weeks have in store for me!

My First Week at 44 Sounds!

Michelle Min Young Joo One Comment

My first week at 44 sounds was wonderful. Aside from not having to wake up at 6AM every morning, 44 sounds so far has been a pleasantly unique experience from the long practicum. At 44 sounds, tutors use the Orton-Gillinham approach to teach the 44 different sounds of the alphabet. The OG approach is a multi-sensory and multi-modal approach to teaching the different sounds through a more direct and explicit way. It helps students who struggle with reading and writing because they gradually become better are organizing, sorting, and recognizing different parts of the English language.

 

Students usually come during the afternoon—typically around 2PM—during or after school. Most of these students are diagnosed with a learning disability and many of them have dyslexia. Dyslexia is a term generally used to describe the lifelong condition where students struggle with processing written and spoken language. It wasn’t a surprise to learn that many of theses students suffer from mild levels of anxiety, low self-esteem issues, and frustration. However, as my week went by, I learned that every student was pretty much a typical kid—silly, curious, creative, and carefree. However, one aspect really stood out to me, and it was amazing to see that every single student was so eager and motivated to learn.

 

Prior to my CFE, I’ve never had experience working with students with exceptional needs. Nonetheless, it is without a doubt that it’s really important to see each child—labeled or not labeled—as having great potential in his or her learning. Every child has a different learning curve in his or her life and every student learns through different mediums. That’s why I think multi-modality and differentiated learning become key focuses in my teaching pedagogy—finding students’ interests and enlightening their sparks will be my most rewarding challenge as an educator.

 

I am really looking forward to the next two weeks during my stay here at 44 Sounds and I can’t wait to get to know the students even better. It’ll also be a very interesting experience to hopefully carry on one of the lessons myself!