After focusing mainly on management and basic teaching practices during my first five weeks, I have now turned my attention to assessment as well. Up to this point, I have been using assessment to gain insight into how the students are processing lessons and what their levels of understanding are in order to be able to plan and adjust lessons that fit with their needs and abilities. I have also introduced traffic light cards that the students can hold up if they do not understand the content being taught so that I can know to slow down or explain a concept again, or alternatively, that they can use to show that they do understand a concept and need me to move on. Finally, I often read students’ work and make comments on it. However, I have noticed some resistance in myself to formally grading them using rubrics, performance standards, or other such measures. I know that this is partially because I do not fully believe in assessment used to label a student’s achievements or abilities. I think that assessment should be as learning and for learning, but I struggle with assessment of learning. I wish that we could have an education system that would not see the need to put students into boxes, and could allow learning to occur and unfold gradually without the urge to measure it. On the other hand, I also have grown to recognize that this is not the education system we have and in order to set my students up for success in the current system I must take care to evaluate and record their achievement in the fairest way and over the greatest amount of time possible so that they, as well as outside observers, can see their progress. If I wish for a reality in which the process of learning is valued more than the product, then, given the parameters I am working in, I must make the process of learning visible to more people than just myself. To this end, I have created a gradebook system that allows me to record each notable activity we do (even the small ones), the learning intentions that the activity captures from the curriculum, and the progress that the student has shown in it. This will make the learning curve of the student readily apparent to all who may need to access this information. I am also beginning to create more formalized rubrics that use fun, engaging and non-threatening language and symbols, such as emoticons and ‘I can’ statements. After all, if assessment is a necessary part of my job, I must learn to embrace it and make all I can from it for the benefit of both myself as a teacher and my students as learners.
Practicum Adventures
Navigating the Complexities of Academic Study versus Practical Experience
StandardThis week, I was able to reflect more intentionally on the similarities and differences between the information I have learned about teaching through my courses at UBC, particularly in the realms of the creation of positive classroom environments and approaches to classroom management, and the practices I am learning through my practicum experience. With courses on classroom environment in my back pocket, I left for my practicum determined that I would use a solely student and empowerment focused approach to classroom management. In other words, I would rely on building strong relationships and offering diverse and interesting learning experiences to form the backbone of my management policy, as I believed that if the students were only attached to me as their teacher enough and if I only offered them creative learning experiences, I would not have to think about management. In the rare cases where I would have to think about management, I would help guide the students into regulating their own behavior, rather than ever giving them direct behavioral instructions or discipline. I have learned at this point in the practicum that this approach is not entirely realistic. While working to improve self-regulation and empower students to make their own choices is clearly the ultimate goal, along the way, students still require more top-down behavioral interventions from their teachers. Their ideas should be respected, but within the guidelines and parameters that a teacher can set out for them. For example, in a class meeting this week, the students asked to be able to use stress balls and other fidget toys during the day so that they can focus better and listen more. While I have followed through on this suggestion, I still need to model for the students the proper ways to use these devices and enforce guidelines for their use. If students do not respect these guidelines, then they will not be able to use these devices anymore. In addition, gaining and maintaining their attention during lessons requires the use of strategies such as clapping in patterns or using calls and responses, and occasionally turning off the lights when their behavior has reached an out of control level. Although I told myself that I would not use these strategies, I can see now that they are both useful and appropriate. After all, although empowerment is the ultimate goal, since students are still learning the proper ways to behave in society and build their own social and emotional competencies, they cannot be left to their own devices but rather must be guided by the mentorship of their teacher. Therefore, while I still believe strongly in the power of relationship, the need for diverse and creative learning experiences, and the goal of empowerment towards self-regulation, I now that these approaches must be balanced by a strong hold on management and a teacher’s position of authority and respect in the classroom.
The Importance of Creativity as a Teacher
StandardThis past week demonstrated to me that creativity is a vital trait that teachers must have, and that there is a big difference in delivering a lesson that comes from the heart and a lesson that comes from a book. I had the pleasure of teaching many lessons this week that seemed to engage the students in hands-on, in-depth and active learning. To begin the week, I taught a Science lesson where students were able to use wooden ramps and hot wheels cars to investigate the concept of inertia. Although the initial inspiration for the activity came from a Pinterest post I saw, I made it my own and designed the other lesson materials for it. The students enjoyed the opportunity to learn through experimentation and I felt comfortable facilitating the process. I also led a lesson where students brought in cultural objects from their own lives and shared them in one-on-one discussions with their classmates. This seemed to given an opportunity not only for me to get to know my students better but for them to practice the vital skills of active listening and articulate sharing, as well as allowing them to connect the abstract idea of culture with their own experiences and interests. Finally, I taught a lesson where understandings of inertia were furthered for the students through a demonstration, group reading of a text, and an outdoor exploration activity. This lesson was entirely designed by me. Although I still faced some significant challenges in holding the attention of the class without chatter at their table groups, I felt that all of the students reached an understanding of the concept and this was reflected in their work. The students were also excited to engage in outdoor learning and stayed focused for the most part while outside. In contrast, I taught a Language Arts lesson designed by Adrienne Gear, and although this was a well-designed lesson that reflected Gear’s depth of expertise, it was not tailored to the needs or interests of my students and so it did not capture their attention and I struggled to manage the class during it. This demonstrated to me that, no matter how strong it may be, lifting a lesson straight out of a text or a teacher manual will never replace the individualization that can occur when a teacher designs a lesson with their students in mind. Keeping this point at the forefront, I will now use the work of experts such as Adrienne Gear, as inspiration or a template instead of a full text. I also intend to use the types of activities that I have seen my students successfully engage in, such as outdoor learning, activity-based learning, movement-based learning, drama-based activities, and small-group work, while minimizing as much as possible the forms of learning they struggle with, such as large-group instruction. Although this type of design will take all of my creativity, I also feel that it will lead to the best experiences for both myself as the teacher and my students as learners.
Embracing the Perfection of Imperfection
StandardThe second week of my practicum helped show me how to lower my own expectations of myself so I can embrace the joys found within each day. There have been many experiences this week that I believe will endure as long-lasting memories for both the students and me. Seeing my class give a fantastic performance at the Surrey Dance Festival was wonderful and noticing the pride on the students’ faces afterwards helped reinforce the magic of the moment. Having the students engage in a more controlled fashion in many of my lessons, such as creating gender stereotype free commercials, experimenting with a ball to learn about balanced and unbalanced forces, and playing with putting together recycled materials to make a variety of new objects, was rewarding and helped ground me in my original motivations behind becoming a teacher. I love to see the light behind a child’s eyes when they learn something new, accomplish a goal, or find pleasure in the education process. Slowing down to notice these feelings and connections in my students demonstrated to me that this passion has not diminished through the challenges I have faced so far but has increased instead. This passion drives me to continuously learn more about being a teacher, commit myself more to the classroom, and try to be more for each of my students. However, my passion can sometimes spill over into my becoming overly critical of myself, and accepting nothing less than my version of perfection every day. Of course, I understand logically that it is not possible to be a perfect teacher at every moment especially when I am only just beginning to become one, and that pushing myself towards this goal will only lead to undue pressure. Therefore, I am not so much as lowering my standards for myself, but rather shifting them through the lens of a growth mindset to being the best learner I can be. I am walking into the third week with excitement to discover both more of my own personal strengths and areas for growth, while embracing the messiness and imperfections of this process.
Learning to Embrace Failure and Struggle During My First Week
StandardThe first week of my practicum has been a process of steep learning. I have continued to deeply love being with my students and getting to know them better as learners and as people. I have had moments of great joy, such as working with a student in Math who is behind the rest of the class in her current skills, and seeing her grasp concepts and grow in her understanding. I have also been able to ignite enthusiasm in my students towards my lessons and units and I love to see their faces light up as learning becomes enjoyable. One significant highlight of the week was taking my students out to the school yard for a lesson, and having them all tell me afterwards that they found the lesson engaging and would love to participate in more learning experiences like it. I am excited to continue with the lesson planning process, as I have found a passion for this portion of the teaching job as well. However, even with all of these positive moments, this week has been challenging for me. I have struggled to assert a position of authority in the classroom in order to get students to listen to me and view me as their teacher. I taught one lesson in particular where it was quite difficult for me to gain their attention for any significant period of time. I have also struggled to find the line between the students showing their enthusiasm and being engaged in the lesson, and the students becoming out of control. For example, I taught one lesson where the students were highly engaged in the activity but the volume level also became much too loud for the school environment. Facing these obstacles, I at first began to question whether I truly have the skills to succeed in the practicum experience at this time. However, after reaching out to colleagues and advisors, I have begun to see these experiences as positive and temporary stepping stones of failure that will launch me into the shoreline of success. I now believe that I need to struggle in order to grow as I should and that it is only by learning what does not work that I will be able to find the strategies that do. My next steps will be trying out new management strategies, such as calls and responses and clapping in patterns, to see whether they are more effective at grabbing student attention than my current ‘quiet coyote’ strategy, and then mixing up the strategies throughout and between lessons so students do not learn to tune my signals out. Overall, although I still feel the struggle, I am walking into this week excited to see the growth that will occur.
Implications and Exploring Links to Practice
StandardMy inquiry topic of positive and relationship-based classroom management strategies has provided a strong opportunity for me to trace my development as a teacher. Since being unexpectedly placed in a 6/7 grade level, I have slowly come to truly love working with youth of this age and to view myself as a future intermediate level teacher. However, the question that I still need to continue exploring is how to both form strong relationships with my students, invest in them as individuals and use management strategies that focus on empowerment rather than control on the one hand, and maintain my professional authority, have students view me as a teacher and never as a friend, and retain appropriate management on the other. The challenges of navigating this duality are heightened by my young age and youthful appearance. While I wish to learn how to instill effective classroom management in order to ensure that all students get the most out of my teaching and learn how to display appropriate classroom behavior before they enter high school, I do not want to fundamentally change who I am or who I relate to students. Therefore, my next steps revolve around testing different strategies of management to see which both fit best with my personal teacher identity and help me manage my particular classroom effectively.
To this end, the course “Cultivating Supportive School and Classroom Environments” has proved to be helpful and inspiring. The philosophy of this course aims to show student teachers how they can move away from coercive practices of classroom management which focus on a teacher’s control over their students and towards more inclusive methods of building classroom environments which focus on allowing students to regulate their own behavior and set their own community values. Through reading articles on strategies such as restitution and social and emotional competence, I have been able to add to my toolkit of strategies. I now look forward to having a chance to implement these practices into my classroom and adapt them to fit the needs of my current students.
So far in my practicum visits, I have been able to test a variety of management strategies, especially since my school advisor emphasizes the importance of my finding my own voice in the classroom and not simply adopting her strategies. I have brought in a box in which students are free to put anything that they wish we as teachers knew about their day, either at school or at home. While some students have used this box as a way to complain about other students’ small actions, there have also been serious situations that have come to light because of its anonymous and private nature. I have also introduced my students to the ‘quiet coyote’ hand signal. Although this strategy was more powerful the first day I brought it in than now when I have used it repeatedly, students show an ability to respond to it. Finally, instead of simply listing my own behavioral expectations for them, I have allowed students to generate their own ideas for behavior guidelines before each lesson. Particularly in one of my lessons, this strategy seems to set a positive tone for the classroom as a whole.
With all of these influences, the research I have read through the development of this inquiry, and my own ideas in mind, as I move through my long practicum, I intend to continue using the management strategies that show success, cut those that do not seem to work, and try new approaches. I will take the time to note down the different strategies I emphasize each day, and what their apparent effects appear to be, while also remembering that there are many environmental factors that can change the general behavior of a classroom or the particular behavior of a student. By the time I graduate from this program, I hope to have a firm understanding of how to foster relationships and management in the classroom at the same time.
Inquiry Guidance on My Practicum Path
StandardThis week, I mainly focused on implementing new positive relationship-based strategies into my own classroom management practices. As classroom management is one of the areas I hope to grow in, I thought that my Thursday visit to my practicum school on February 16th would provide the perfect opportunity for me to begin to assess which strategies would be worth exploring in conjunction with both my own personality and the environment of my current classroom, and which would need revision before being of use. One of the strategies I tried during the weekly class meeting at this particular Thursday visit was having the students pass a stone around when it was each person’s turn to speak, and tell me, as well as the rest of the class, one quality or behaviour they would commit to bringing into my drama lesson. I thought that this would be a strong way to phrase rules for an activity in positive language, to allow students to take ownership over their own behaviour rather than being forced to comply with a set of predetermined rules, and to foster a sense of community and mutual respect for each other’s learning in the class. Many of the students selected participating and being respectful as their commitments, which fit well with my personal goals for the lesson. During the course of the lesson, I also introduced the ‘quiet coyote’ hand signal as a way to calmly signal a transition from busy activity to quiet discussion and to gather them back to the group when their attention began to wander. Finally, I circulated throughout the room to interact with, and be able to encourage, all of the students during the activities. Although my management of the class was not perfect and I still have some ways to go in developing my skills in this area, I found that these strategies helped the students make a vast improvement in their behaviour as compared to the previous visit. Putting aside variables I cannot change for now, such as students’ experiences at home in the morning or the quality of the breakfast they ate, I think that the comparison between the visits is a good indication of the effectiveness of my new management techniques, as the lessons I taught revolved around the same movement skills and busy, full-class activity. Compared to the previous lesson, the students were more attentive, showed more positive interactions with each other, and demonstrated much better control over their bodies and actions. Although a longer and more detailed inquiry is needed to truly examine the connections between different management strategies and students’ responses to my lessons, the success I found this week demonstrates that positive strategies can have true effects and that I do not have to change who I am as a teacher in order to be able to assert leadership in my classroom. Rather, I can use positive and relationship-based techniques that work from my strengths as a teacher and as a person to ensure all students show appropriate behaviour in the classroom and find success.