Practicum Reflection: Day 1

I was very excited and a bit nervous going into our practicum school. I really enjoyed every bit of the first visit. It was definitely an eye-opening experience to see different teaching styles, how classroom management was continuously embedded throughout each activity in all the classes I visited. The whole school is very welcoming all across board with school administrators, teaching staffs, and the kids. Some kids we have not met popped their heads into the prep room and gleefully said hi as they were going by the room. I remember as we were doing a second round of tour with the principal, Mr. Russell, a student paused him casually in the hallway, and inquisitively asked the principal, “Mr. Russell, how many kids do we have in our school?” Mr. Russell replied with a smile, “302 to be exact.” I think this short interaction between the principal and the student says quite a bit about the school atmosphere. The student was very comfortable with the principal as he was nonchalantly returning to his classroom and this was only 1 student out of the 302.

First Classroom: Kindergarten (Ms. Sull)

• My first time re-entering an elementary classroom not just as a student, or a visitor but welcomed as a member and a part of their class.
• This is also the first time introducing myself as Ms. Chen. I was a bit nervous at first when the teacher, Ms. Sull, paused their art activity and told her kinder students to turn around and give their full attention to me, the new visitor in the class. I have to be honest, it was a bit scary as all of them turned towards me. But, my fear quickly disappeared as I see their welcoming smiles. I said, “Hi everyone, I am Ms. Chen,” and they cheerfully responded, “Hi! Ms. Chen.”
• I dove into helping the students right away as Mrs. Sull pointed out that this is their first major art activity and a lot of her students would need assistance with using scissors. As I was helping the students with using their scissors, I caught myself glancing quite frequently at Mrs. Sull as she was going around to help each students. I was a bit unsure to what extent I was to help them, some of them needed more assistance them the others. Some students grasped the fine motor-skills of turning the template with one hand while cutting carefully with a pair of scissors on the other hand quite quickly. There was a student I observed, he went through several templates and was not happy with any of his results. He wanted it to cut right near the black outline and was struggling. However, he didn’t give up. He managed to produce a product he was content with after numerous tries. Ms. Sull also saw this and praised his effort of not giving up.
• I was really surprised on how much work is needed to prepare the students for recess. The prepping needed were the following: putting away snack, taking off indoor shoes, putting on outdoor shoes, tying on shoe-laces if need be, putting on jackets, sometimes had to turn the sleeves inside out before ready to put on the jacket, and finally lining up, and waiting for the bell and the teacher to open the door to go outside. It took Ms. Sull and I at least a good 10 minutes helping with shoes and jackets.

Second Classroom: Intensive Literacy Program (Ms. Dalzell)

• This was a class of 13 students with a mixture of grade 4, 5, and 6. There was a youth worker coming in and out of classroom along with an educational assistant who helped to facilitate some activities. Ms. Dalzell said all her students were referred by their previous schools with a guarantee of staying in this Intensive Literacy Program for only 1 year. These students did not thrive in the main stream classroom setting. She found embedding SEL element is crucial in her teaching in order to foster a safe learning environment and allowing the students to regain their confidence and inquisitive passion for learning. This students were often labeled by their previous school as “student with learning disability”. This Intensive Literacy program run by Ms. Dalzell focuses specifically on developing literacy skills in terms of reading, writing and comprehension with a focus on the foundation of decoding.
• Dalzell working on a piloting program, Just Words® by Wilson Learning Training, with her students. She was working on decoding and spelling activity with her students in rotating groups as the others worked on their independent science project. It was amazing at seeing the booklet with magnetic alphabet, and how fundamental and crucial it was to alphabetize and read out each alphabet, and sounding out each phonics with the students before introducing the decoding activity word of the day: “gap”, “g_p”, “_ap”, “ga_”. The students had the freedom to create any words and sounding it all. She then asked for meaning of “gap”? And, once they all grasped the definition of gap, they wrote in on their gap. Next, the students were asked to construct a sentence using “gap”.
• I had the opportunity to witness the independent science project the students were working on. Each student had the flexibility on choosing the order they wish to explore the topic about “Our Body” on a website that highlights and read aloud simultaneously. There were enough devices to go around to each student: headphones, Mac desktops, I Pads, and Macbooks. This is also my first time seeing scribing done for students needing assistance with written output.
• I thought it was really interesting when Ms. Dalzell told the kid who came to her in frustration: “Thank you for coming to me for help. But, you need to come to me with a solution, not just a problem.” I understood Ms. Dalzell wants to build a sense of autonomy in her students with every possible opportunity. Students all have the capability to self-solve problems. She wants to reinforce and remind them that they are capable of finding solutions in addition to give them a boost of confidence and independence.

Third Classroom: Grade 3 (Ms. Jassal)

• The idea of silent reading to me was novels or books from the library. Ms. Jassal’s class was doing silent reading on I-pads through a program called Raz-kids. I was assisting them in logging into their accounts. Each student has an individual account, and had access to books at their reading level. Ms. Jassal had the authority in choosing their reading level accordingly, and monitor how much time is spent on reading, and assess their reading comprehension by their quiz results. The students were really motivated in doing the reading. They were collecting star points for each correct answer they respond to. Ms. Jassal said she is monitoring the time spent on reading versus the quiz results because she is suspecting that some students were guessing their quizzes and by luck hoping to get a star rather than understanding the story.

My question/ponder                                                         

• I understand we want to establish an inclusive learning environment. But, in the case of this school’s Intensive Literacy Program for students with learning output exceptionality, and Fast Track program for children with fetal alcohol syndrome, what is the role of inclusive learning? The students are thriving and benefiting in these specific programs dedicated to their learning needs. Segregated learning for the time being was beneficial for these students. It seems as if there is a long process of assessment needed to be done before meeting their learning needs. How do we identify students needing more than just main-stream classroom instruction? Ms. Dalzell said the goal of her program is to boost her student’s reading ability in 1 year to the degree that they are ready to re-enter their main-stream classroom. What if the student needed more time to grasp those skills? Will their previous school be on board with explicit adapting teaching strategies to welcome this student back to their learning community?