My Path to Inspiration and Inquiry

March 10^th, 2016

I am super tired and exhausted today but at the same it was definitely filled with lots of rewarding moments!

Here is my post, I wanted to jot it down before I forget.

Hectic Morning

I got up at 5:00 am to do a last triple check on my leprechaun scavenger hunt material, and it was within half an hour that the power went out in my area! Stunned but had to think fast on what to do! I used my laptop screen light to tidy up everything and tried to get dressed for the day.

I started texting Harmeen and Sabrina at around 6:00am to ask them if they were experiencing power outages because I know they live quite close to Creekside. I thought about Harmeen first because I wanted to give her an update on Bothwell as I live just across from the street so she is aware. I used my data to check for outage info and school closure, but nothing was updated yet at that time. I notified Kal too, telling her that I don’t have power in my area. Harmeen, Sabrina and Kal all responded saying they have power in their area. So, I made a decision that I need to tell my dad to manually pull up the garage door, and we need to head out much earlier than we usually do as I was worried about possible traffic light/ road problems!

I arrived at school much earlier than usual at around 7:35am. Whew! What a morning!

I settled down and got my morning St. Patrick’s art lesson ready, got the youtube music clip ready, went to the paper room to get additional pastel supplies.

Questions: What do I do if a child was injured? (thinking ahead into practicum if something does happen during class)

I did ask Kal and other staff the protocols for power outage and school closures! I also asked her in case if any students were injured in a group setting (gym or in class), what steps and priority decision making she would take. (E.g. bolting away, bleeding, head injury, …etc) She said always the group should be kept as a priority. We can phone the office for additional support about the concerned individual, or ask another staff in the hallway for aid, and of course there could always be extenuating circumstance and exceptions.)

St. Patricks’ Art (morning activity with scavenger extension in the afternoon)

I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable but definitely still work in progress with the pacing of my instruction. There were definitely times I need to exaggerate and use really hyped up enthusiasm with the kids by introducing their work as not just “work” rather “A REALLY FUN activity!” I definitely feel the students were working quite smoothly through my many progressions with the 2-piece art (pot & leprechaun) Of course, there were once or twice I had to bring the kids altogether to clarify a few minor steps. In general, I can see and feel they are fully engaged and willing to take the time to work on their details. My prep into creating the templates was worth it as I heard their extended excitement and conversation post-activity, during recess, and lunch time. I wanted to make my activity today not only encompassing art but also providing an experiential learning, thus I created the scavenger hunt.

I knew it was the first time for most of my kids to learn about leprechaun, so I did a short intro with a music video and a picture book, followed by art. But, I didn’t want to end just there! I wanted if I can to give my student an opportunity to experience the taste of the magical world

Kal went to the gym as I stayed behind for about 8 minutes to ensure all details were taken care of. I then quickly joined them in the gym for dodgeball as I didn’t want the kids to have too much suspicion. As we came back from the gym, usually they go right into centre time, but we told them to get a drink of water and come sit at the carpet. The kids were amazingly observant! One saw a clue on the door and then it snowballed into roof-raising excitement with the whole class. They were making connections to our gingerbread man hunt back in December as they had to be detectives for a school-wide search! I downgraded to a class search because I knew everyone (office secretaries/ librarian…etc..) was busy with the open house today and I didn’t want to add onto their stress level. Most of the kids bought into the magical idea, but still thought it was unbelievable that their leprechauns sneakily escaped! It was hard not to smile with joy hearing some of their predictions and assumptions of why their leprechauns ran away. They definitely couldn’t hide their anticipation! Originally, we were going to walk around to find the clues with the whole class. But, both my SA and I felt the kids were TOO excited to the point that they might start to run around to get to the next clue. So, we decided to sit down at the carpet where we all can see most of the clue except for the last one. We asked a few kids including the special helper to bring a clue up to us at the carpet instead of all 20 kids swarming at every clue location. Even with them sitting at the carpet, there were definitely times I felt I had a crowd of leopard ready to launch for its prey every time a kids brings up a clue for me to read aloud together with the class! I did not picture how thrilled they were with this activity, because I was worried what if they were literally expecting “a pot of gold.” I filled my goodie bag with one golden chocolate loonie and the rest with luck charm cereal. I thought I could find the chocolate coins at the dollar store, but I couldn’t, so I had to buy it in bulk, and they were relatively costly. If they were cheap, I would have filled their bags all with coins, but economically-friendly, I couldn’t. Surprisingly, the kids didn’t really pay attention but was still hung on the whole scavenger process and was glad even to dig into the lucky charm cereal bag to discover that single chocolate coin!

I have to admit it was a ton of work into the prepping, hiding their work, leaving traces, clues, and placing the reward in their pots! However, with the joy on their face, they sound of excitement, the awe at the magical disappearance, and seeing them extending their experience into creating self-directed “scavenger clues” during centre time was much more than I can ask for! The whole experience was priceless. I want my kids to feel my strong presence before going off to spring break and hopefully hold its reminiscence till I start on March 29. I want this pre-St. Patrick celebration to be a memorable one for them and hopefully they will be ready to have more fun ways of learning and exploring with me!

Staff Dinner (5PM-6PM)

Great bonding time with our fellow staff at Creekside! Sadly, it’s Manjit ‘s last day tomorrow! Most of the staff only found out yesterday! The newsletter went home today! We will meet our new VP when we start after spring break.

Open House (6PM-7PM)

It was a great turn out! At the start we only had a few families but as the night progressed we were full housed! Only 4 families out of my 21 students didn’t make it to the open night either due to away on vacation or sick. We had our math centres set up, allowing students to show and play familiar class activities with their siblings, parents, and grandparents. They could also show their family their work around the room. Our literacy teacher, Paige (Ms. W) and I were also helping facilitate and explaining “the writing sample folder” which documents student progress from September till now with student work and tracking rubric. I really valued the opportunity to casually chat with my students’ families especially for those family members I haven’t met. I definitely feel my continuous greetings and brief chatting at the door on Thursday mornings have come together quite nicely in helping me establishing a foundation to building good rapport. As I was chatting with my students’ families today and the past few weeks, I did let them know that after spring break, they will start to see more and “lots” of me!

(Personal Goals)

• Need to work on naturally integrating classroom management (need whole class attention, not repeating myself: maximum twice)
• Need to establish a stronger teacher presence at ALL times in ALL situations possible (take students’ input into consideration, but at times it is okay to say no so I don’t loose control. 
• I should always try to address the class as whole and not give too much attention to selective students especially when they are merely seeking attention. (exceptions: medical reason or other conditions)
• allowing students know upfront we will be learning new things, it may be things that are familiar to them but in a different way. We might not always get to do what they exactly want, but we might be able to get to it when I feel they are able to demonstrate their readiness and ability to focus)
• I should never assume students understand the given tasks, always pause if students are confused (it is okay to review rules from the start to the end)
• Proximity: gather students as close as possible for attention (e.g. gym, so students can hear and focus more easily and that I don’t have to raise my voice and repeat my instructions)
• classroom: provide students more opportunities during lesson activities to allow student autonomy to share and utilize more background knowledge and experience
• try different ways of posing questions that allows students to wonder (relevant questions that are broad in a way that allows all students to explore)

Hi Claire, I have been able to revive the long lost “Parent Engagement” post just now! I discovered hidden in a weird spot on the blog and had problem having it published with visibility so I had to copy and paste it to make a new post even though it was stated as published. I couldn’t even see it myself.

This is just perfect timing in retrieving this particular post because I will be able to participate in another parent engagement function this Thursday  March 10 at Creekside from 6pm-8pm. Kal has invited me to participate in  the “Open House” event, where students and their families will be welcomed into their classroom, participate in activities, and seeing their children’s work. I have been nodding, smiling and saying good mornings at the door before the morning bells rings. I wish to use the open house opportunity to meet my students’ families and hopefully will engage in some brief discussions and establish a stronger connection. There will also be a brief teaching staff dinner after the open house event. I think it will be another good opportunity to meet other teaching staff!

I had the opportunity to participate in my Kindergarten’s parent interview session on December 15, 2015. Ever since the visit in December, I have been asking around for advices whenever appropriate in regards to my experience. The reason I came on my own time in addition to our regular Thursday visits for the day was because I want to see how parent interviews are conducted and how my SA would discuss a student’s progress with their parents. It definitely was an eye opening.

Every parent interview was conducted in another language: later I  found out Punjabi to be specific. It got me wondering, how do I initiate parent engagement to parents who doesn’t speak English as I cannot speak Punjabi? I have been ensuring a welcoming atmosphere by greeting parents and providing assistance at drop off, pick up time, field trips with parent drivers, class parties, etc..

I have since been talking to other educators (other classroom teacher, professors…etc.) whenever I have a chance to ask what I should do in this occasion.

There are a range of suggestions and advices I received from various educators:

• Your responsibility is not to learn every single possible language your student’s family speaks
• You should attempt to learn the dominant language of your school population
• Some culture my expect a different teacher-parent relationship they what we imagine. They may view the teacher as powerful role, and not easily approachable! They may feel if the teacher doesn’t talk to me, that means it’s a good positive thing! (In this case, I want to break down the barrier at a pace of the families comfort,  to let them know I am easily approachable in assisting with their child’s learning)
• Communication is a “2-way” street, the families should also “do their share”. There is only so much you can do.
• Use a multicultural support worker
• Ask the family to bring in another person who speaks English
• Don’t translate in writings: don’t assume all speakers of the language can read and write.
• Chatting with Dr. Shelley Hymel: Parent Engagement for non-English speaking families is an ongoing-researched topics. It is especially relevant to the SEL needs of the student and the families who are coming from Syria in the coming time. Shelley said there is research team she is currently putting together, and that I will be informed and can be involved outside my class time.

I learned from my gym lesson today that I should never assume students understand the rules of a familiar simple game such as “what time is it? Mr. Wolf?” as they are variations to the game. I should always review and ensure student understand the rules of a game with clear succinct instructions from the beginning to the end. I have to keep in mind not to repeat myself! My SA said I should refrain from repeating instruction because some students might not be listening actively if they know the content will be repeated a second time around. I have to keep in mind of the student’s attention span, and if they missed hearing the instructions, they will have to be held accountable to learn next time to pay attention. I need to work on not repeating my instructions. I need to give them the instruction clearly once and just let them go to work on the given task. I need to establish a stronger teacher presence at all times in all possible situation in the classroom, gym or any given setting. I am feeling very comfortable in the classroom setting in terms of classroom management, but I need to work on transferring that confidence into the gym as well.  For example, if a student wants to play dodgeball as opposed to participating in the given dancing task, it is okay to day no so I don’t loose control of the class. I have to realize that I cannot please every student and meet all their wants. It is fine to take the student’s suggestions into consideration perhaps for next time, but I should not feel pressured that I need to please every student as they also need to understand at times we need to do activities as a class. My SA said I should not and I also understand now not to give too much attention to the above mentioned students especially when they are merely seeking individual attention. It is okay to let the students know that we will be learning new things, and that sometimes we might be doing things they are familiar to them already but in a different way. We might not always get to do what they exactly want, but we might be able to get to it when I feel they are able to demonstrate their readiness and ability to focus.

Assessment Dilemma

I was asked by my school advisor to help with assessment with during centre time with my kindergarten students. When the kids were playing at their interest areas, I was asked to ask one kid to come up at a time to do a short 2-part assessment takes about 2 minutes or so to do. The first task was for the kids to count up from 1 to as many number as they can up to 100. And, I would have to observe and record if there were any mistakes, or were they repeating or self-correcting when they are counting. I would then jot down the last number they were able to count correctly. The second task was for the kids to count back from 10 to 0 which the kids knew as a “blast-off” activity. For this activity, I was just asked to do a check mark if they can or cannot count back from 10. If they couldn’t, I would jot a short note down of my observation.

Students are provided several opportunities each day during instruction with number counting up and down through their morning routines to the lesson activities whenever possible. Sometimes, they would include it in their chants and songs. I wonder what it means for the students who were able to complete each task successfully and the implication for those students who don’t. It was surprising to see some of the result. Some students who were struggling with their fine motor and writing sills excelled with counting. I wonder what some strategies some of the students used when doing rote-count? What is the purpose of assessing the students with these 2 activities? I definitely saw students who also struggled with the counting. How much prompts are we able to give? My school advisor did say to give some prompts to help them relate to activities we usually did in class? But, how much is too much? Does it effect the validity of the assessment?

There are a few different ways of getting student’s attention I learned from Kal, my SA today:

• “non-verbal cues”: my SA started some finger pattern movement and built on more as she attracted the whole class to the crowd. (*I was really amazed at how the crowd gathered at the carpet so quickly and how the kids are so intrigued with the finger pattern and hand movement)
• “how many claps (syllables) in your name”: for lining up to wash their hands for recess or lunch, my SA would say if you have “X number of claps” in your name, you may go wash your hand
• if your name starts with “a phonetic sounds of X”, you may go wash you hand

Friendship Lesson

• Tension between 2 girls at the carpet just before I was about to start  my lesson today. I was debating for a slight second on the spot whether to address it or not.  I felt it was relevant to the friendship conflict resolution activity I was about to start. So, I took their situation and asked the class how we can help our friends out! I was amazed at the helpful input from the rest of the class. However, the two girls still couldn’t get along, and I knew I had to keep the lesson flowing so I discretely separated them as I continue to start the first part of my lesson, a story. I understand at times we might want to to do classroom management right away to keep the flow.  I just thought of experimenting and taking an inquiry approach of bringing  a real scenario that was happening to spark student input and share helpful strategies.

I did a bear art lesson introducing the eight types of bears that lives around the world. Prior to designing the art activity, I did some research on bears at the Education Library to make sure I am aware of the general characteristics, habitat and additional information about bears. I wanted to be prepared to answer questions and direct them to where we can find out the information if the students were to raise any. From doing background research,  I learned there are eight general species bears: Black, Brown, Polar, Sloth, Spectacled, Sun, Moon and Panda. I wanted to also raise the students’ awareness to the bears that live in our community, so I emphasized on the three that lives in Canada: Polar Bear, Black Bear and Brown Bear. I brought about 20 books that had real depiction of assorted species of bears to my Kindergarten class in case they might be intrigued to find out more about the topic after the lesson. I also did put these books out during morning reading time, (prior to bear art activity), and tub time (post art activity). I did also let Kal, my SA know that she can keep the books until next week when she is finished with her Bear Themed lessons. Overall, I am glad the pacing of activities and engagement of student’s interest was much more sustained than my very first lesson on a SEL Story about sadness!  My goal this time around was to design activities that use the students’ funds of knowledge on what they know about bears!

Reflection on Teaching

• I do understand there were some calling outs during the video clip viewing or when I posed a question, but I did not pause to correct them as they were on topic and just a bit more engaged then I expected. I should definitely take their interest level into consideration and allow more opportunities and time to do a more in-depth pair-share or class-share for future activities, especially when they are so engaged. (E.g. Perhaps….even something short and brief: “I hear you have so much ideas, quickly, turn to your partner, and share you ideas quickly!”)
• Classroom Design: How do I ensure I can have constant access to monitor all students? How do I situate myself despite the kids’ built-in routine of bringing their work up to the rainbow table which is situated at the very back of the class while some are playing with tubs in the front? In terms of the long practicum, I definitely have to give it more thought and research into what fits with this group of kids and how can I use the physical classroom environment to my advantage?
• Assessment: I am still not quite sure how do I set a measurable lesson learning objective? How do I actually know for certain that I know the student have achieved it? What is their evidence of learning, and does it match up to the lesson learning objective? What do I want the students to understand? AND, WHY?
• Inquiry: How do I extend this lesson? While each student came up to me at the rainbow table, I asked them about what they had created. From each of  their story, I definitely can take what they wonder about bears and take that exploration further in depth.
• Video Clip: too quick, lots of information to take in, fun, the tune is great! If I were to use clips so info-packed as this, I definitely should realize that I can always pause and elaborate or even prep the students in advance what details to look for, such as, colours of fur, facial features…etc..
• I didn’t want to limit the students to which bears they want to depict or what they can use to represent it. I did provide a slight framework of using a bear template, glue sticks, wax crayon, and oil pastels. I did show a visual musical clips that introduced all 8 bears. Also, I showed an art  demo of what the three bears in Canada would look like. And, off they went onto their creations! I did give suggestions on using the already sorted white, black, or brown wax crayon or oil pastels. Some students did venture off into grabbing markers, I didn’t impede on their choice as my learning objective this time around was not on techniques. Perhaps, I can set stroke, brushing, shading techniques as an objective for future arts lessons. One thing I forgot was taking a photo of their finished product.

Looking forward to the Teddy Bear Picnic this Thursday as a closing activity to conclude the Bear Themed Unit.

We have been learning the importance of scaffolding in our LLED classes for students of all abilities. And, I realized that on one thing it is great to scaffold activities for my student’s learning process. But, on the other, what is the proportion of time spent of breaking down steps versus meeting my learning objective. During my “Hickory Dickory Dock ” clock/dramatic play art, I have to realization that it is okay for me to pre-built activities in a a way as long as it helped me focus on meeting my learning goal: whether it is working on fine motor skills, literacy, counting, etc..I should be clear on setting one learning goal and built my activity around that as a foundation!

If it was not for the assistance of the TOC, I don’t think I had the man-power to monitor the class and attend to each little steps. This is another teaching”a-ha” moment for me! Last time, it was routine, this time is around clear learning purpose of activities and not to scaffold too much & too often.  Don’t try to meet too many learning goals in one activity. I knew the kids enjoyed the activity, but I also knew if I didn’t have an extra hand in the class, the art craft wouldn’t have been able to come together as smoothly as it did!

What I did this time around:

• I pre-cut clock, mouse, and lyric templates

Steps I could have done prior to teaching and will take into consideration for the future:

• pre-pin the clock hands
• pre-tape the pop-sticks to the mouse template