Community Field Experience
Overall, this was a great educational experience! Due to the teachers strike we were able to immerse ourselves a little more in the community and it was awesome to have this opportunity. Invermere is a great little community and overall we were very impressed with the resources it had for its residents. We will miss all the wonderful educators, administrators, students, and community members that we met while in Invermere, BC.
At first glance I almost missed some really neat and educational playground equipment. I found out that the equipment below is meant for making music making!
Hidden educational value found on the playground at J.A. Laird!!
We were very lucky to have received a tour of a previous Residential School just outside of Cranbrook, BC. This tour was definitely a highlight of my CFE because of the first person oral history we received from a previous student of the school. I was very impressed with our tour guide. He gave us a very unbiased perspective of the school and it was very powerful to hear both the good and the bad legacy the school has in this community. He began our tour by explaining how the building that the school was located in has now been appropriated by the Ktunaxa Nation. They have turned the building into a hotel, casino, and golf course. My favourite part of the tour would have to have been the stories he told us about the games students would play at night, daring each other to sneak around the building past the hight guards. This was a very special experience, and I will cherish this for the rest of my life. I am excited to share this with my future students.
http://www.steugene.ca/resort/interpretive-centre/heritage
Invermere is home to quite a cute little museum. This would be a great resource to have in order to teach students about the history of this area of BC. There were many pioneer type cottages, each with their own theme. One of which was a replica of a one roomed school house. This was probably my favourite part of the museum. I was intrigued by the photographs that demonstrated very small classes of students and the 1872 rules of teachers. The profession has changed quite a bit over the last 100 years or so!! I wonder how different it will be in another 100 years?
There is a very strong German presence here, including the tourists we came across and German cuisine we tasted.
This week we spent time at the communities youth centre. This proved to be a very valuable resource for students in the community, especially with the strike that left them out of school a few weeks earlier then expected. I was quite impressed with the resources available to youth at this centre. There are weekly events planned, including a group baking night, which is my personal favourite since I love to cook. There is also a night dedicated to just hanging out and students get an opportunity to interact with the many donated activity equipment such as computers, air hockey table, foosball, Guitar Hero, pool table, and a big screen T V.
The highlight of the week would definitely have to be the Grade 7 Dance! This dance was student initiated and planned due to grade 7 graduation activities having been cancelled during the teachers strike. I was impressed that a small group of students reached out to their local community for help in facilitating such an event and also for their idea to include the nearby communities of Canal Flats and Radium! Its inspiring to see students get involved in their community!
Decorating the Hall for the Grade 7 Dance @ Summit Youth Centre
Week 1:
To finish off the week at J.A. Laird we were invited into a grade 4 classroom to assist them in making their very own pizzas!! This was a co-operative based activity where students worked in small groups to stretch dough and build a pizza. All the students in the class contributed ingredients from home and the teacher had pre-made all the pizza dough. This activity, although not originally intended, became a celebratory end of the school year activity, so excitement was extremely high! Participating in this type of activity inspires me to have similar potluck type gatherings with my own students. In fact my practicum class did this as well, but what I really enjoyed about the pizza party was the student participation.
While on my 10-week practicum I was fortunate enough to participate in Project Chef and this particular experience helped me teach the students basic cooking skills on the day of the pizza party. I felt very comfortable just jumping in and assisting students and had quite a fun day!